The Wealth of Nations is upon us!

Has the philosophies of Adam Smith, author of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" better known as "The Wealth of Nations" and "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" reached its moment in time? He is credited with being the first to examine the importance of the division of labor and worker productivity, and for advancing the idea that free markets thrive on the basis of mutual self-interest. Although Smith warned against monopolies and mercantilism, his notion that markets are driven toward the public good by an "invisible hand" has made him a venerated figure among free market doctrinaires.

There seems to be a revolution among many small businesses, and some revolutionary big business to make a better world through creating a more environmentally or spiritually conscious business. Finding the need of the customer for a longer term relationship, rather than simply trying to close the next deal on the newest product or service and leave the customer out.

GM is seeing its stock reach levels it hasn't seen since 1954 due its denial of the desires of the buying public. They did not listen and refused to see the writing on the wall, instead trying to tell the consumer or convince them of what they wanted and manipulating those desires through legislation assistance by passing tax bills to help the consumer when they bought big trucks. Now, no one wants a big truck due to rising fuel pricing. All the while we would watch the true desires of the consumer increase with small economical imported cars.

As the new emerging economies of the world give rise to people and their desires for a more healthy and prosperous life we are able to see hints of Adam Smith's quote, "The average man and woman along with the society in which they lived, should be the primary beneficiaries of a wealthy nation." And goes on to say, "...every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into competition with any other man." His argument follows that the benefits of the free market should accrue not just to individuals but to society as a whole.

With Google's slogan "Don't be Evil", are we seeing an emergence of a global phenomenon of spiritual capitalism? With the revolution of environmental capitalism and the Green Business rage it seems that a new capitalistic consciousness is developing.

Let's look also at another entrepreneur named T. Boone Pickens. This billionaire has an idea, called Pickens Plan, is now being marketed on television and you can see his ideas on his website at T. Boone Pickens. My wife and I were watching MSNBC and his commercial came on. It sounded familiar, as I have been developing real estate and building homes in the state of Texas now for the past three years I have come to hear about this topic a bit. I have also heard a bit about T Boone Pickens. I think he is on to something quite substantial. As an entrepreneur he is far forward in natural gas, wind, solar, land conservation, water conservation, wildlife conservation and more.

The Dallas/Ft. Worth Metro area has discovered under it a natural gas field called The Barnett Shale formation. This is the worlds largest find of its kind. This find has been being drilled now for a few years and brings $8B to the local community each year now. This is partly why this and the overall Texas market is still going very strong even in this down market today.

His Mesa Vista Ranch, in the Canadian River Valley of the Texas Panhandle, is a model for wildlife resource management. The 68,000-acre ranch would be odd shaped to a cattleman, but then cattle don’t roam there.

With Pickens’ first land purchase in Texas he found that the bluffs and creek beds there suffered from consistent overgrazing. He immediately began a program to help the land recover, over time investing in overall wildlife management strategies and facilities, installing substantial water sources, feed plots and native grass replanting, and power infrastructure.

In his 68,000 ac Mesa Vista ranch, located in the north texas panhandle offers premium wildlife cover. Thirty-five miles of buried water lines with outlets feed small waterholes at 1,000-foot intervals, benefiting all natural local of wildlife.

His vision is sound as far as retreating from foreign oil. His decisions to follow through with natural gas, wind, solar and hydro power are sound and he has put his money forward for his vision and causes. By doing so he has created hundreds of thousands of acres of natural lands that are now being conserved as they are future developments for these resources. Natural gas takes much less resources and land area to mine for. Wind and Solar are other resources to which take only land mass, natural existing weather systems and sun. I have driven by the area of his spread on my way through and see they are exemplary areas for wind and solar fields. He has already begun the worlds largest wind farm to be online in 2011. His natural gas company formed in 1997 called Pickens Fuel Corp. has become the nations largest Clean Energy distributor of Natural Gas for transportation.

It is discussed, at the diners in Texas, that his vision is strong, economically sound. He is known as the man that has been buying up ranches from Colorado, Oklahoma, and throughout Texas. In this “red” zone he discusses. Much of the land he is unable to purchase he is partnering with landowners to create one of the nations largest landhold leases in history. His vision for this land is not only for wind and solar farms, but the worlds most expensive and rarest natural resource, water. He has been negotiating to create a 300 mile pipeline to come to the Dallas/Ft. Worth region for water due to the known population increase this region of the country is participating in. This water pipeline, on the land he has purchased or leases, can also be used for wind and solar farms. He will be creating the worlds largest clean natural resource conglomerate.

I say all the power to him,(no pun intended) as Rockefeller, had done with Standard oil in the late 1800’s, Pickens is poised to be the leader of clean natural resources in the near future. His vision is not solely to one resource, which I think is brilliant. He has broadened his risk as well as his return by spreading his resource options. Through exponential growth in these resources he is looking at some great returns.

Moreover, Pickens devotes much of his enterprises to bringing environmental and wilderness awareness to his projects. Thus fullfilling Adam Smith's philosophy that the benefits of the free market should accrue not just to individuals but to society as a whole. Perhaps we should add not only society, but the world and its ecosystems as well!

As Adam Smith also says in his dialogue on the observations of value, "Nothing is more useful than water."

Click this pic to view the Pickens Plan!!