With material prosperity less dependent upon physical materials, wealth exploded in the industrial countries and spread to most of the poorer countries.

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Yes, despite their material prosperity, the Medians are a grumpy lot.

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So, if it's not material prosperity, what makes us happy?

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There is no question China and many of its close neighbors in Asia are experiencing a period of unprecedented material prosperity, and the incentives to continue along that path will certainly influence political diplomacy.

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The spiritual mission helped doom the enclave's material prosperity, when the Jesuits' spreading influence finally prompted Japan to shutter itself from the world by the early 1640s. (The Dutch cut off trade from the other direction by seizing Malacca in 1641.) But over the next century the effort gave Macau a purpose, as a center of learning and a bridge to the Middle Kingdom.

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Or to put it another way, economic conditions in what remains the world's largest single economy have a material impact on our prosperity.

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These new identities are characterised by the "material signs of capitalist prosperity", he explains, but its "confused value system" is not a product of the industry, rather, an existing reality that chalga amplified and solidified.

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Prosperity, in any meaningful sense of the word, transcends material concerns.

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