AI总结
核心结论
自由市场是繁荣的引擎，通过技术创新（如AI、基因编辑、药物研发）持续提升生活水平，进步的扩散往往被持悲观态度的“进步派”忽视。
结构逻辑
- 引言： 批评桑德斯和奥卡西奥-科尔特斯对美国繁荣的否定。
- 技术驱动繁荣：
- 医疗/生物技术： 基因编辑（Verve-102）、GLP-1减肥药的广泛应用。
- AI应用： 软件代码自动化、医院降损（Palantir）、硬件升级（减震悬挂）。
- 社会演变： 共享经济改变消费习惯（Uber/车辆拥有率）、互联网基础设施优化。
- 结论/反思： 抨击教育体制及政治导向，呼吁通过参与市场分享繁荣。
关键信息
- 行业/板块： 生物医药、人工智能、共享交通、互联网服务。
- 相关公司： Lilly (礼来), Palantir, Uber, Anthropic, Campbell’s.
- 热点： GLP-1激动剂的多元医疗用途、AI在医疗与软件中的应用、去中心化繁荣。
问题与回答
- Q1：美国人是否没经历过繁荣？ A：文章认为繁荣随处可见，体现在医疗突破与技术便利中。
- Q2：监管与干预（如AI禁令）有何后果？ A：阻碍创新，危害公共健康及经济增长。
正文
Times Square in New York, April 24. Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) wants to confiscate, er, “tax” 50% of the stock of artificial-intelligence companies—the dumbest idea since Karl Marx picked up a pen. Meanwhile, his mind-meld mini-me, millennial Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), said in 2019 that an entire generation “came of age and never saw American prosperity,” and then whined, “I have never seen that, or experienced it, really, in my adult life.” Really? She must be distracted with only five years to go on her climate-mongering, “world is gonna end” prediction.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the free market is a prosperity dynamo. Has Ms. Ocasio-Cortez heard of Verve-102? Last month’s trial results of Lilly’s one-time gene-editing therapy showed it can lower LDL, “bad cholesterol,” by almost two-thirds. Could this be a heart-attack vaccine? It’s certainly a sign of a prosperous society.
Speaking of gene editing, Columbia University researchers successfully demonstrated base editing of “early human embryos” to replace specific genetic letters. OK, there’s a boatload of moral implications on how this is used. No one wants genetic breeding of 7-foot-4 humans. But the ability to identify and eliminate debilitating diseases—for example, hereditary blindness—is nothing short of amazing.
Meanwhile, the march of the GLP-1 agonist wonder drugs continues. Ozempic and Wegovy are now in pill form for diabetes and weight loss. There’s already an effect on food. Campbell’s said that its snacks business in the May quarter was down 4% from last year. It would have been 6% if they hadn’t raised prices.
Meanwhile, GLP-1s may also help stroke, kidney and fatty liver diseases as well as sleep apnea, and research is under way to treat substance abuse, psychiatric and even neurodegenerative disorders. Earlier this month, a Penn Medicine analysis reported that women 45 to 80 “who took GLP-1 medications were about 30 percent less likely to develop breast cancer.” Should we all be microdosing Ozempic? Now add last week’s news that a shingles vaccine may reduce dementia risk. Prosperity power.
As someone who used to write code, I’m astounded by the ability simply to talk to some AI bot named Claude, which then spits out pretty decent software. Palantir tapped AI to lower early death rates from sepsis at Tampa General Hospital by more than two-thirds. Every hospital should adopt this immediately, but wouldn’t you know it, protests broke out in the U.K. fighting a deal between the National Health Service and Palantir over the company’s ties to Israel. Even dumber was the introduction in March of Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s AI Data Center Moratorium Act. Do they want you dead?
More prosperity: Active noise cancellation has gotten good enough to muffle airplane noise and it’s almost there for human voices in offices. Now we have active suspension damping, which the Journal’s Dan Neil has reviewed. Cameras read the bumpy road and actively smooth the ride. As the old ads go, we can finally cut a diamond or circumcise a baby in the back seat of more than a Mercury Marquis!
Generation Z may be the first generation not to own cars, thanks to Uber and self-driving vehicles, and will turn their garages into man caves or influencer studios. Car unit sales in 2025 were still below pre-pandemic levels. Most city bus services now tell you when the next one will show up. Air travel, while still awful, may improve as airlines like United, Alaska and Southwest roll out Starlink Wi-Fi.
We may be on the verge of no more online data breaches. Anthropic’s Mythos is being furiously run (not widely enough) to fix vulnerabilities and harden important software already deployed, in a race with enemy hackers.
AI bots, like them or not, are being perfected as personal AI coaches, encouragers, even therapists to counter that voice in your head, especially about climate calamities. Can we cure anxiety? Or does the idea of this make you even more anxious?
Cuba Libre! Freedom may soon arrive to the island nearly 70 years after that famous scene in “The Godfather Part II” and the chaotic New Year’s Eve in Havana at the start of Fidel Castro’s communism. Cuba family beach vacations may return. We are exporting our prosperity. Comrades don’t like it.
Progressives have a relative prosperity problem: envy. Yes, housing is expensive (see progressive policies). Billionaires and now a trillionaire are tantalizing targets even if they bring us the prosperity Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Sanders are reluctant to see—or more likely politically forced to ignore. Remember, the future arrives via diffusion, at a different pace for everyone. But it happens. Worrywarts miss it.
To enjoy prosperity, you have to participate in prosperity. Sadly, the progressive money train runs through our teachers’ unions. Students are woefully unprepared for college and life. Realtor.com noted recently that a third of adults under 35 lived with their parents last year—a higher rate than during the pandemic. Maybe the free market should confiscate half of public schools. That’s a prosperity-popping idea I can get behind.
Write to kessler@wsj.com.
Journal Editorial Report: A democratic socialist is poised to become the next mayor of the nation’s capital. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP
Appeared in the June 22, 2026, print edition as ‘Live Free and Prosper’.