Why Free Enterprise Matters
Americans enjoy a very high standard of living despite the nation’s relatively short 235-year history. The prosperity that we enjoy is the direct result of our Founding Fathers creating a society based upon the principles of free enterprise and limited government.
Free enterprise is simply an economic system based upon the voluntary exchange of goods and services because both parties benefit from the exchange. Only a free enterprise economy provides people with the opportunity to achieve financial success in meeting the needs of others. However, for free enterprise to work, these transactions must be free of government coercion.
The role of the government is to create an environment where individuals and organizations can create prosperity through meeting the needs of others. The Founding Fathers asserted that the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are given to us by our Creator and not by our government. Governments exist primarily to protect those rights against violations by others. Only in a country where the government protects the personal and property rights of its citizens can free enterprise succeed and flourish.
Our own history has shown that government intervention in the economy, usually on the behalf of a politically powerful group, results in misery, rather than prosperity, for most Americans. During the 1930s, misguided government programs thwarted economic recovery by forcing high wages and high taxes on businesses struggling to survive. The result was widespread unemployment for the entire decade.
This website offers resources to show your friends, colleagues and employees how free enterprise, not government intervention, creates prosperity for all