Since science is its method, this equation is the same as saying
The Scientific Method = Wealth

Importance of the Scientific Method in the Conceptual Age

The equation science = wealth appears occasionally in the literature, such as on the editorial page of New Scientist magazine, July 7^th, 2007. Of course, it also takes engineers to apply and extend science, a democracy to help it flourish, a capitalistic system to provide incentives and opportunity for entrepreneurs, a country with a good educational system, and many other things to actually produce the wealth that the scientific endeavor makes possible.

Dr. Vannevar Bush, one of our foremost scientists, who aided the World War II effort and the establishment of the National Science Foundation after the war, aptly described the value of scientific endeavor in 1945:

“Advances in science when put to practical use mean more jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for learning how to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for ages past. Advances in science will also bring higher standards of living, will lead to the prevention or cure of diseases, will promote conservation of our limited national resources, and will assure means of defense against aggression. But to achieve these objectives – to secure a high level of employment, to maintain a position of world leadership – the flow of new scientific knowledge must be both continuous and substantial.”

It is this “flow of new scientific knowledge” from applying the scientific method that has earned the scientific method these well deserved phrases:

The greatest discovery of science
The greatest idea of all time!