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Nurturing Renewal

It

is well known at Harding University that the most

basic institution of free enterprise is private property.

A second ingredient of free enterprise is free access to

the market. The motor of free enterprise, indeed, of all

enterprise, is individual initiative. The great regulator of

free enterprise is competition.

At the same time, there are many things that free

enterprise is not.

It

is not the freedom to seek profit by

any and all means.

It

is not the right to profit at the

expense of the welfare of the community.

It

is not the

freedom of any man to exploit any other.

It

is not the

freedom to waste the natural resources of the country.

What else? Free enterprise is not the right to

monopolize, which impedes or prevents the

establishment of new business, creates scarcity, and

imperils the spirit of enterprise.

It

is not the opposition

to necessary and appropriate government regulations,

often for no other reason than that they are

governmental.

It

is not the appeal to government for

subsidy or protection whenever adversity appears.

These distortions have never belonged in a properly

functioning system of free enterprise. They can pull

democratic government down on top of itself.

Harding's Belden Center staff know well that the

blessings in private property are built into American

capitalism.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, private

property used for production is thrice blest -- it blesses

those who are the owners, those who make their living

using it and those of the general public who, as

customers, benefit from the goods and services

produced. Payments for the use of existing tools,

profits, provide money that is used to create additional

tools.

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