35 / 304
5. History's Amazing Constitutional
Achievement: America
It
has been said that living in America is like going
to a movie in the middle of the picture. A lot of action
has already occurred, and it takes some time to find out
what the picture is all about. In order to understand
the picture of our Constitutional Republic, we need to
know what has already happened.
The story of our American incentive system is the
story of all the people in it -- ourselves and others. We
need to know how we fit into the story, what our part
is, and what we can do to make the picture better.
Americans have been described as hard-working,
optimistic, impatient, materialistic, practical, idealistic,
adventuresome, patriotic, nationalistic, humanitarian,
and believers in fair play, equal opportunity, and
individual responsibility.
,
And yet, as we are so cosmopolitan in personality,
we certainly are not of one mind on the issue of free,
private enterprise. Even Winston Churchill observed
that:
''Some see private enterprise as a predatory tiger
to be
sho~
others as a cow to be milked, but few are
.those who see it as.a sturdy horse pulling the wagon."
Why has the American incentive system performed
so well? Are we better than other people in other
lands? Are we smarter? Are we better looking? What
is our competitive advantage? We started with a rather
large land mass and a rather small, but well-educated
population.
Our land is buffered from most
conventional wars by two oceans. We live in a
temperate zone in a climate that stimulated
accomplishment.
17