As the nation's debt swells and economy flounders, politicians of all stripes push a myriad of plans and proposals, as if it's only the right Excel spreadsheet that's needed to determine how best to allocate and create wealth. But given the fact supercomputers now crunch 2.5 quadrillion calculations per second, however, it's not as if inadequate tabulations can explain moribund growth.

Nor can the lack of natural resources. If the size of a country's oil or energy holdings determined a civilization's wealth, Venezuela and Cuba would be steeped in prosperity, not poverty.

History or tradition isn't a lock. As I pointed out a few weeks back, Great Britain was the world's economic superpower for hundreds of years up until the late 1890s when the U.S., fully and freely embracing the industrial revolution, took over.

Abundance isn't a function of government spending either, as evidenced by the economic turmoil and ongoing street violence among Europe's debt-ridden PIIGS. Last year I wrote about Japan's failed attempt to kick-start its economy: 11 separate stimulus programs over 8 years that left the country less productive, less employed and further in debt.

In reality, it's ideas that move the world, and the fundamental principles to which societies adhere determine if an economy rises or falls. The water isn't any different in Pyongyang, North Korea, as it is in New York Harbor; the only difference is that beginning with American Revolution, the United States has embodied freedom, capitalism and individual rights. Our historic prosperity, even among the lowest economic rung when compared to the rest of the world, is a byproduct of those ideas.

Civilizations move in trends just like the market, often persisting longer and with greater consequences than anybody imagines possible. Government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae (FNMA) was a $50 stock before it started falling in the summer of 2007. Just when you thought it couldn't fall any lower, it did. Delisted, it now trades on the pink sheets for 33 cents.

To that end, North Korea, ruled as an autocratic dictatorship since 1949, provides a telling example of what happens to a society where bad ideas fester. Totalitarian and Stalinist, the country has no free trade, free speech or freedom of any sort. The economy is nearly entirely state-owned and centrally planned, the average salary is about $48 per month. Nearly 40% of children are malnourished.

What does life in such an economy look like? An associate of mine recently got the rare opportunity to visit North Korea and, even under strict government supervision to see only the most well-off areas, was able to capture a glimpse within this collectivist dictatorship where individual rights, capitalism and other basic Western freedoms simply do not exist.

A Freedomless World:

What's required for prosperity isn't the right stimulus or budget, but philosophy: that of a free society based on capitalism, voluntary trade and individual rights. North Korea stands as a stark reminder of what happens when those ideas never take hold.

Jonathan Hoenig is managing member at Capitalistpig Hedge Fund LLC