"When a private
individual meditates and undertaking, however directly it may be connected with
the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the co-operation of the
government; but he publishes his plan, offers to execute it, courts the
assistance of other individuals, and struggles manfully against all obstacles.
"Undoubtedly he is often less successful than the state might have been in his
position; but in the end the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all
that the government could have done."
Historian Clarence Carson once noted that if a group of
settlers came together at the start of a trail, pulled their wagons over and
met around the fire the first night together, it would be easy to tell whether
or not they were Americans.
Everywhere else in the world, Carson suggested,
someone would stand and give orders to the group. In the United States, in
contrast, someone would nominate leaders and the group would vote for various positions
of responsibility.
As part of the process, a number of the people would
volunteer to do numerous acts of service which would bring them no personal
benefit or status us at all but which would help the overall group.
There are certainly many examples of free enterprise in
modern American and in many other places around the world, but is it possible
that we need still more free enterprise in our modern world.
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Social Leader Daily by Oliver DeMille
