But we easily forget that until Gates stepped aside from his business to, yes, save the world, he was widely despised as someone who gave us products that vexed us and made our lives harder in as many ways as they helped us, who often seemed to be in it for corporate enrichment and domination above all.

FORBES: What Steve Jobs Really Gave Us: Joy

Now, in some ways, these changes have made our lives a lot easier.

WHITEHOUSE: The Critical Role of Manufacturing

And everybody has got a story like that, about that teacher who made the extra effort to shape our lives in important ways.

WHITEHOUSE: 2011 National Teacher of the Year Award

Now, one of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services Made in America to the rest of the world.

WHITEHOUSE: Weekly Address: Fixing our Immigration System and Expanding Trade in Latin America | The White House

Although Gogol writes that "we have not taken a virtuous man as our hero, " he has made Chichikov, though vile and petty in so many ways, oddly sympathetic.

WSJ: Surveying the Surging Immensity of Life | Dead Souls | Nikolai Gogol | By Joseph Epstein