The West's "Prosperity": Built on Exploitation or True Progress
In the grand narrative of Western civilization, economic prosperity is often presented as the ultimate triumph. Skyscrapers pierce the clouds, markets buzz with activity, and innovation drives unprecedented wealth creation. This dazzling display of material abundance is frequently held up as irrefutable proof of a superior system. Yet, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, with his profound insight into both Eastern spiritual wisdom and Western economic thought, offered a chilling counter-narrative. He argued that beneath the gleaming surface of this prosperity lay a system fundamentally built on **exploitation**, a structure that devoured human dignity and widened the chasm between the rich and the poor.
