By Dave Duffy
I love free enterprise. I see it all the time in our many trips across the country to show Backwoods Home Magazine at the fairs and expos we attend. Perhaps the most vivid demonstration of free enterprise is on the highways as we travel to the expos, especially in the evening when there are almost as many trucks on the road carrying goods to market as there are cars carrying people.
This magazine is a perfect example of free enterprise. It started as an idea. I had moved to the country, built a house, planted a garden, and decided I would build a new life founded upon the traditional values of self-reliance. But to earn a good living, I relied on the free enterprise system, marketing my new lifestyle as an example others should follow. And as the free enterprise system is wont to do, it lifted my good idea high for the world to see.
That’s probably the best thing about free enterprise. It is a natural filter for good ideas. You don’t have to be “well connected” with the government or with the church or with whoever else is wielding societal power. You just have to have a good idea. The free enterprise market will do the rest.
That is why countries with the maximum amount of freedom are so financially prosperous compared to countries with a minimal amount of freedom. Ample freedom limits the ability of those with power in society from stifling good ideas put forth in the marketplace. A good idea in a free society with a vibrant free enterprise marketplace will succeed, and the success of good ideas invariably leads to a healthier society because people’s lives are almost always improved.
It could be stated in a mathematical equation: G+F+M=H (Good idea + Freedom + Marketplace = Healthy society). In fact, with this simple equation the whole world has been redone for the betterment of mankind. And the more you employ its power, the more other people see it work and bring forth their own good ideas.
What a powerful concept for the human race to have discovered: Allow people the freedom to bring forth their ideas so that their fellow humans can judge them as either valuable or not so valuable. Give people the ability to vote for the best ideas by transferring some of their wealth to whoever comes up with a good idea. By the end of a single transaction, many people have benefited, and by the end of many transactions, nearly everyone in society has benefited.
I recommend that the next time you travel down a highway, notice all the trucks and imagine the huge volume of goods they are carrying to store shelves around the country. If you are lucky enough to live in an area with lots of trains, as I do, imagine too the enormous loads of goods they carry to markets. These are the main vehicles by which good ideas are transferred to the rest of us. Truckers are often entrepreneurs taking other entrepreneurs’ products to market. Highways and railways full of trucks and trains are like spokes in a wheel — each one adding strength to a healthy society.
This is America. This is how it all works. We have lots of freedom, and we allow people with good ideas to hold up their ideas so the rest of us can examine them and freely buy some of them if we so choose. They make money and we get something we value. We both benefit, and the more of these exchanges we have the greater the benefit to society as a whole.
It’s such a simple formula. Even the details of these millions of transactions are taken care of by the willing participants in them. What a wonderful world we live in once you realize that America’s secret is so simple and straightforward.
