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Walter Williams was right, again.For most of human history, great wealth was often tied to control. Kings taxed their subjects. Conquerors seized land and treasure. Empires extracted wealth from defeated peoples. Aristocracies controlled enormous estates, and in many societies, slavery and forced labor were part of the economic order.Power came first, wealth followed.Capitalism changed that equation in a profound way.Under a system built around private property, voluntary exchange and competition, a person could become wealthy without conquering a neighboring country, inheriting a title, or commanding an army.He could make something people wanted.She could provide a service people valued.An entrepreneur could build a better product, lower the price, improve distribution, solve a problem, or simply serve customers better than the competition.That is the point Walter Williams was making.In a functioning market economy, you generally do not become wealthy because people are forced to give you their money. You become wealthy because millions of people voluntarily decide that what you are offering is worth more to them than the money in their pocket.Henry Ford did not have to force Americans to buy automobiles.Sam Walton did not need an army to make people shop at Walmart.Steve Jobs did not confiscate your paycheck to sell you an iPhone.They created things people wanted, and people willingly paid for them.Capitalism is certainly not perfect. Human beings are not perfect, and no economic system operated by human beings ever will be.But the moral distinction matters.One system says, give me your wealth because I have power over you.The other says, give me your business if I can earn it.That may be one of capitalism's most important achievements, it transformed the pursuit of wealth from a contest over who could seize the most into a competition over who could serve the most people, the most effectively.Walter Williams understood that better than almost anyone.Do you think Americans still understand the difference between capitalism and every other economic system ever invented?