President Obama recently made a stunning remark about owners and
workers under free enterprise. He said, “If you’ve got a business,
you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Who? Ultimately, the government.
Free enterprise empowers entrepreneurs who have ideas and
imagination, investors who take risks, and workers who hone their
skills and offer their labor. Our exceptional country was built up
by the ingenuity, capital, and sweat contributed by individuals who
risked it all to build a brighter future for their families.
America was founded on the shared belief that government’s primary
role is to safeguard our God-given freedoms, as individual
initiative and a strong civil society are what make prosperity and
flourishing possible. America is exceptional for this very reason
— no other country in the history of mankind was founded on such a
powerful idea.
The President’s policies have stifled this commitment to
economic freedom, resulting in millions of Americans facing painful
economic hardships. In the President’s revealing rhetoric, we gain
insight into why the economy remains so anemic and the future looks
so bleak.
In this President’s telling, success is a function of government
beneficence — not individual initiative. His outlook not only
makes for terrible economics; it also reveals moral confusion. The
issue that separates our President from our Founders is a moral
one: freedom and individual initiative, or big government
alternatives to freedom?
President Obama’s comments reflect an ideology that casts the
private sector as an arena driven by greed and indifference to the
well-being of others. In government-directed economies, the
collective takes priority over the individual. The moral ideal is
equal results.
That approach could not be further removed from the real
world.
Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement
depends on a community of persons working together. We strengthen
our bonds with each other as we offer our unique gifts to others:
some are inventors, some investors, others are laborers, managers,
or marketers while customers reward the best producers and
providers by buying their products and services. We work to advance
the common good through our free association with each other, not
through a coercive government directing our actions. Each human
being has inherent dignity and unique gifts. Meaning is derived as
we voluntarily share our individual gifts and talents with each
other, in mutual assistance to meet our neighbors’ needs, thriving
in ways we could not if isolated individuals as caricatured in the
President’s distorted view of America’s commitment to free
enterprise.
Of course government has a critical role to play: establishing
neutral rules that enable open competition and securing peace and
order with courts, a standard currency, defense forces, first
responders, teachers, infrastructure, and a safety net for the most
vulnerable. Government can help create the space for innovation and
prosperity, but government does not fill that space. Activist
government overreach and ongoing economic stagnation have shown us
why Washington should not try to displace what is best left to
civil society.
There are pernicious side effects from Washington’s intrusion
into ever-increasing sectors of our economy and aspects of our
lives. Big-government economics breeds crony capitalism. It’s
corrupt, anything but neutral, and a barrier to broad participation
in prosperity. Both political parties have been guilty of this
trend. Most recently, Washington has pursued polices that pick
winners and losers in specific sectors of our economy and that
favor well-connected corporations and union bosses with
bureaucratic access, tax loopholes, and regulatory waivers. Think
Solyndra, bankrupt after a $500 million taxpayer guarantee, and
Fisker Automotive, whose taxpayer loans created jobs in Finland,
not the U.S.
The moral case for individual initiative in a free economy holds
that people have a God-given right to use their creativity to
produce things that improve our lives. A free economy and strong
communities honor the dignity of every person, rewarding effort
with justice, promoting upward mobility, and building solidarity
among citizens. The President’s collective vision of a
government-centered society — reflected in his troubling rhetoric
and failed policies — divides class against class and belittles
fair rewards for workers, entrepreneurs, and investors—America’s
real builders.
We face a defining choice in November. Mitt Romney’s clear
vision is very different from the President. America’s founding
principles of freedom and equal opportunity will guide his policies
as he repairs the damage, which the current administration’s agenda
has inflicted on this country. We don’t need to change the nature
of America. We need to recommit to our founding principles and
rebuild what has been broken — and this comeback begins by
replacing the current leadership in the White House.
