Letters for families based on the book “It Can Be Done” @studentsleadusa
When a small percentage of Americans cling to fringe or unreasonable ideas and squawk loudly, this does not signal a deep, meaningful divide in our country. If that small percentage begins growing, it could simply mean America needs to do a better job of educating its citizens. This is the case with our approach to and understanding of free enterprise.
Most free enterprise ideas can be quickly grasped by bright elementary school students. We have no excuse for failing to teach them properly. Indeed, well-educated citizens cannot rationally turn away from or ignore the benefits of free enterprise.
We begin with simple building blocks. America’s freedom enabled us to choose free enterprise as our economic system. Free enterprise, otherwise known as capitalism, involves buying and selling property and services to make money. An amazing series of voluntary acts and relationships run throughout free enterprise.
With businesses, people voluntarily own all or part of a business or buy and sell property. Businesses voluntarily provide goods and services that people want or need in exchange for payments.
With customers, people voluntarily purchase the goods and services they deem the best value as to price, quality, or both. This encourages businesses to do better by competing with other businesses to provide value to customers.
With work, employees shop for jobs, and employers compete to hire the employees they want. The parties form relationships based on voluntary matches. Employees generally earn their jobs by competing with other candidates and receive compensation they voluntarily accept from an employer.
The free market for jobs helped families to provide for themselves. Millions of daily decisions about employment, pay and benefits have usually produced low unemployment. Unlike other countries, in America, nearly all adults who want to work and can work are able to land jobs of some sort.
The entire system emphasizes freedom and pleasing others, rather than having a government telling people what to buy or sell at what price. Decisions by ordinary people, exercising their freedoms to decide what they want, produces amazing results in America. This system made us a superpower and built the world’s largest economy.
Every American has a stake in the free enterprise system. Most Americans, for example, have at least some investments in stock, ownership shares of businesses operating in free enterprise. All Americans buy goods and services. Clearly, free enterprise is not just for “rich people.”
Similarly, business success is not just for “rich people.” Businesses provide our jobs, products, and services, setting the stage for many aspects of our quality of life. Even people who say they hate capitalism seem to love the technology and other items they buy in free markets.
Why did free enterprise work so well in America? Not surprisingly, it had a lot to do with liberty and justice. With liberty, many Americans could choose to risk what they saved to start new businesses. Our justice system protected valuable ideas and effort. Bright ideas that had value in the marketplace could become the next groundbreaking product or service.
Liberty and justice allowed people to keep most of what they earned through their business and work efforts. Without private property protection within our system of justice, including the right to create, own, trade, and sell property, free enterprise would have been impossible.
Free enterprise and liberty provided strong motivation and incentives to succeed. Limited government meant most people would be responsible for their own lives. To succeed, Americans would have to work and be smart about their decisions, and they usually did.
Our system created a place to do business with natural financial incentives to build and achieve. One success led to another and another. In capitalism, one person’s dream could create jobs for tens of thousands of other people. We fought for our independence, chose capitalism, built the largest economy, became the most generous nation, and changed the world. We did it with free enterprise.
Our common ground should include encouraging voluntary economic choices and recognizing that millions of voluntary choices each day form our free markets.
People can also agree free enterprise encouraged innovation, providing goods and services with abundance in our marketplaces. Pointing to these factors alone – right in front of us for all to see – can unite thoughtful Americans around promoting and preserving free enterprise, through educational efforts and otherwise.
Frost Brown Todd LLC Member and business lawyer Rob Hudson is a Past Chair of the Northern Kentucky Chamber. 2018 Independent Author of the Year Lauren Hudson is a Singletary Scholar at the University of Kentucky. Their next letter will explore common ground about preserving freedom.
