America’s Founding Fathers understood that a free citizenry would prosper. If people were simply allowed to keep the fruits of their labor and make their own decisions, they would inevitably produce everything needed, and much more.

During America’s War for Independence, John Adams explained in a letter to his wife Abigail: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons must study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

Adams could not have dreamed of what his sacrifices and the freedom he helped secure would eventually lead to. The birth of America with its unique Constitution unleashed human creativity like never before in history. Try to imagine life, just for a moment, without light bulbs. Try imagining it without refrigerators, toilet paper, air conditioning, microwaves, telephones, computers, assembly lines, and airplanes.

That list of luxuries represents but a fraction of the wonders that resulted from American entrepreneurship and the free-enterprise system that allowed it to thrive. All these conveniences weren’t just invented here; they were produced and distributed so efficiently that virtually all Americans now have access to them. As America prospered and citizens’ basic needs were met, entrepreneurs had free time to invent new things. People in the fledgling Republic were now motivated not by a despot’s sword, but by the promise of personal success.

Wealth earned by producing and trading goods and services began to accumulate as technology progressed and people had even more free time to devote to leisure and other non-essential activities. People had savings that they could invest. This continued to fuel the cycle of production, allowing ever more massive undertakings like railroads and skyscrapers. Voluntary associations were building a mighty civilization that no amount of dictators and well-trained central planners could have come close to imposing.

The system Americans were blessed with is unique in history. Instead of tyrants trampling the people’s God-given rights and having an economy run by force and coercion, the Constitution created a government that was designed to protect the people’s rights and property. Safe in the knowledge that the fruits of their labor were safe, Americans set out and created the wealthiest society that has ever existed. Profit and the ability to keep it continue to be the motivating forces driving America’s producers, and contrary to modern dogma, it is a wonderful blessing. It’s why America is presently as prosperous as it is.

While it took the colonists weeks to cross the treacherous Atlantic, the abundance provided by free enterprise allows Americans today to travel around the world in a day. They can sky-dive out of airplanes or prepare tasty meals in minutes. They can control a room’s temperature with the twist of a dial or drive down a highway at 75 miles an hour.

One Man, One Business

Scuba diving is just one of the countless leisure activities that Americans can enjoy in their free time thanks to the free-enterprise system, and Lloyd Bailey is just one of countless entrepreneurs who have been able to make their living while enriching people’s lives by providing them with goods and services they demand. His business sells everything from scuba tanks, dive knives, spear guns, masks, and fins, to firearms and ammo. Captain Lloyd Bailey, as in a ship’s captain, also offers scuba lessons and tank-filling services.

After attending the University of Florida, Bailey took up his uncle’s suggestion: he borrowed money to start a business. After borrowing the necessary funds, the young Bailey started off teaching scuba diving and selling equipment out of a warehouse. “It started in a very humble way and I really had to watch my spending,” Bailey said before explaining his experiences learning about conservation of capital and keeping a low overhead. “I just stuck to the fundamentals of supply and demand, you know, finding out what the market wanted and always making sure I had it in stock.” Gainesville is one of the largest and most important destinations for freshwater diving because of the unique springs and caves that saturate the landscape, and the store is now the largest scuba store in North Florida. Bailey owns it free and clear.

By 1995, the business had a website. Soon, 30 percent of Bailey’s sales were online and 30 percent were interstate. Maybe there was some truth to his company’s slogan: “Lowest prices in the world.” He developed it after a particularly large competitor began using “Lowest prices in the nation.” The competing store is no longer around. “They had a big chain with like seven stores so I wondered how I would be able to compete,” he said of the former competitor. “But I told myself ‘I will win,’ and I worked at it and I did.... America is still free enough that anybody who wants to win can win.” But Bailey’s success was no accident. He put in 100-hour weeks and 14-hour days for two years. His efforts certainly paid off.

Bailey is also one of the nation’s many John Birch Society chapter leaders. “I always tell people that Birching is my first job and that if I fail at that, my second job doesn’t matter,” Bailey said with a smile on his face as he sat in his office. He isn’t joking; half of his sign outside is dedicated to the John Birch Society Gainesville chapter. He also buys a full-page, centerfold ad in the Liberty Sentinel of North-Central Florida every month, where he promotes the JBS or one of its campaigns along with his business. He’s been known to do the same thing on billboards.

Because of his Birch background, he understands that the well-being and prosperity of Americans and his own future depend upon limiting the size and control of our government. He understands the crucial role of America’s free-enterprise system in the success of his business. He also understands that the system is a product of the sacrifices made by the Founders who enshrined America’s unique traditions and legal system in the Constitution — the one document most important to maintaining a free market in America, where people with dreams like Bailey can pursue them. He understands the importance of educating his fellow citizens for the future — after all, he was blessed with a son just this year. All of his scuba students get a free civics lesson. “I love the saying, ‘Capitalism may not be perfect, it’s just the best system that has existed in the history of the world.’ If you look back, governments have never created wealth, but they certainly destroy it,” Bailey noted. “It’s important that people understand so we can pass the great nation that was handed to us on to our children in better condition.”

Despite his positive attitude, Bailey is concerned that as government grows ever larger and consumes an ever greater budget, it is infringing on people’s rights and interfering in the economy too much. “With all the obstacles that exist now to get into business, I’m sure glad I don’t have to do it all over again,” he remarked, citing the countless fees, taxes, and regulations that continue coming down from federal, state, and local governments. He is hopeful that as the economy worsens, more people will get involved and help restore sound money and limited government — two essential requirements of a healthy free-enterprise system.

Bailey pursued his dreams and made people’s lives better through entrepreneurship. His accomplishments prove that hard and honest work is rewarding in a system based on private property. His success illustrates why a free-enterprise system that leaves people free to make their own decisions is desirable: it produces businesses like Bailey’s that provide something that people want as well and efficiently as possible.

The Difference Freedom Makes

The free-enterprise system has led to so much prosperity that until recently, less than two percent of the population grew the nation’s entire food supply. For almost all of human history, people have toiled simply to avoid starvation. They have been ruled by despots who stole anything and everything that the people didn’t need to survive and continue producing. European serfs lived as tenants on the land at the pleasure of the kings and aristocracies. If their crops didn’t grow, they might not survive the winter. If the river dried up, they might not have water to drink. People around the world still struggle today just to access the basic necessities of life. People die of starvation and dehydration on almost every continent. But America is different.

Here, even people who are considered poor have food, water, shelter, electricity, education, television, healthcare, transportation, leisure, and more. Middle-class people enjoy a standard of living that is among the highest anywhere on Earth. The American economy is the largest of any single nation in the world, but the American people account for about five percent of the world population. Why is this? What is different about America?

Advocates of big government try to explain all of America’s prosperity with several theories, including the abundance of natural resources, the fact that the United States has rarely had infrastructure destroyed during war, and the fact that the United States plunders resources from abroad. While there certainly may be a number of factors contributing to America’s success and great wealth, one tradition and idea secured by the Constitution towers above the rest: freedom.

The free-enterprise system that has given entrepreneurs the freedom to dream, produce, and invent is not only tradition, it is the foundation of the nation’s legal system. The idea that government exists to protect the life, liberty, and property of the people, endowed by their Creator, is enshrined in the Supreme Law of the Land thanks to the sacrifices of the Founding Fathers.

The facts show overwhelmingly and conclusively that property rights and economic freedom lead to prosperity. A joint study done by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation in 2007 called the “Index of Economic Freedom” ranked 157 countries based on 10 economic indicators: property rights, freedom from government over-regulation and taxation, government corruption, trade restrictions, etc. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia placed ahead of America as having the fewest constraints on individuals and business, as the federal government here continues to expand beyond its constitutional limitation. But with America, Switzerland, Canada, and other rich nations in the top 10, the study’s results drew a clear link between economic prosperity and economic liberty. Ranking at the bottom of the list were countries with the least economic freedom. Communist North Korea and Cuba came in last.

“Some people claim that some countries are rich because of abundant natural resources,” writes economist and syndicated columnist Walter Williams. “That’s nonsense! Africa and South America are probably the richest continents in natural resources, but are home to some of the world’s poorest people.” He continued by dismissing the idea that those nations’ poverty resulted from their status as former European colonies, pointing to the United States and Australia as examples of success stories — citing economic freedom as the difference.

“The economic development lesson is clear: Have a system of economic freedom and grow rich. Extensive government control, weak property rights and government corruption almost guarantee poverty,” Williams wrote of the Index of Economic Freedom, suggesting it was like a map of world poverty.

In addition to creating far more prosperity, free enterprise also creates a middle class and distributes wealth more equitably. In repressed nations, the tendency is to have a rich elite ruling over the much larger, much poorer population. History and the modern world are replete with examples.

The Constitution and the freedom it secured for Americans created a nation of free people who claimed their rights from a source higher than government — and free people become prosperous people.

“Free labor is incomparably more productive than slave labor. The slave has no interest in exerting himself fully. He works only as much and as zealously as is necessary to escape the punishment attaching to failure to perform the minimum,” noted renowned economist Ludwig von Mises. “The free worker, on the other hand, knows that the more his labor accomplishes, the more he will be paid.” In a free society, any given worker’s wages are more valuable to him than his labor or he would not make the exchange — he is making a profit, and the more he works, the more he profits. “Freedom for all workers warrants the greatest productivity of human labor and is therefore in the interest of all the inhabitants of the Earth,” Mises continued.

Free people have the inherent ability to exchange their goods and services for those of others, provided that all interested parties feel like they benefit from the transaction. Profit is why the baker wakes up every morning and bakes bread for the community. It is why companies and individuals figure out the most efficient ways to produce and distribute their products to as many people as possible. It is what makes the world go around.

A free market also happens to be the only moral and just way for people to collaborate with each other in a society. It is the right of every free individual to keep the fruits of his labor. If somebody or something else lays claim to an individual’s property, that person is a slave by definition. Once again, John Adams put it best: “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”

Free enterprise and private property also create the most humane society. Americans are by far the most generous people in the world; they give around a quarter of a trillion dollars to charity every year. According to a book called Who Really Cares? by Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks, Americans give seven times more to charity than Germans and fourteen times more than Italians.

Even with all of the obstacles government has imposed on the free market — fiat money, over-regulation, over-taxation, wealth redistribution, etc. — the fundamental principles of free enterprise and American ingenuity still managed to build the most prosperous society that has ever existed. It also happens to be the most charitable. Imagine the wonders that would result from allowing free enterprise to flourish once again. Imagine the suffering that could be lessened or abolished.

To continue basking in the blessings showered upon a free people though, citizens must always be on guard to protect their liberty. Their prosperity is inextricably linked with it.

Alex Newman is the president of Liberty Sentinel Media, Inc. and the executive editor of the Liberty Sentinel of North Central Florida.

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