

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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