Hey, I told you I'd get this up here sometime. Please let me know what you think, if you have a chance to read or skim it! Just as a reminder, I wrote this for school. It was just supposed to be a speech to summarize the book.

Free Enterprise Economics in America Oral Summary

"To be born a free man is an accident; to live as one is a responsibility; to die free is an obligation." Author unknown. Many, many times I have heard that I live in a free country, free to make my own religious decisions, free to make my own judgments of value. And many times I have thought in return, "But how much longer will this freedom actually last in America?" The book Free Enterprise Economics in America explains that Americans' freedom will only last as long as we keep the government in it's rightful place as the defender of liberty, and not to allow it to become our dictator. This book defines and goes on to explain America's free enterprise system. It discusses Biblical truths that go into this system, historical examples, and in what ways the free enterprise system is being put into use in our society today. In this speech, I will define some of the most important terms which you will come across in a free enterprise system, sum up several verses from which free enterprise developed, and finally discuss one or two of the historical examples of free enterprise. 

The terms which I would like to talk about today are property, competition, and profit. Let's begin with a definition of property from Free Enterprise Economics in America. They define property as "an exclusive ownership right in something; that is, to own, control, enjoy, and even dispose of it as your very own without giving any explanation or reason to anyone else, even to the civil authority." Property includes not only your wealth or tangible items, but also your opinions, mind, and soul. One must have the correct understanding of property in order to understand their personal responsibility before God. As I will explain further in a few minutes, it is extremely important to maintain our responsibility before God. Without this, we would lose our religious freedom. Man would be controlled by outside influences without this God-given right. We will now move onto competition. Competition is defined as an "economic force at work in the free-market economy to assure that exchanges are indeed voluntary". Competition which is effective consists of two or three available options so that the buyer can decide which option suits his needs best. He may pick the lower priced item with less worth, or the higher priced item with more value, but in the end, all that matters is that he is able to decide. Finally, let us discuss profit. Profit, as the book states, may be "the most misunderstood word in our vocabulary!" It involves labor, risk, success, and sometimes failure. The risk comes in when a person recognizes a need for something in society. That person then may undertake the labor of designing the item, hiring and paying workers, and purchasing materials and marketing for the item. By the time all of this work is finished, the need may have been already fulfilled. This is the risk. However, entrepreneurs must often take this risk in order to provide for the needs of society and to gain profit. One would never make profit if they nervously sat by and watched, too afraid to begin any undertakings for the good of society. The driving force behind the risk of course, is profit. If the entrepreneur does decide to serve as a catalyst, create a solution, and if the offered solution proves itself worthy and needed, the entrepreneur then earns profit for his labor, risk and investment. Now that we have discussed these three important terms, I would like to move on to several Biblical statements from which the free enterprise system developed and by which it is supported.  

 The first verse which I would like to look into is Genesis 1:26, which states "...Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...". This shows us that at the heart of the matter, every man has a right to be free as we were all created in the image of God. Because we were made after God's own likeness, we have a right and a responsibility to make our own free decisions. God is able to make judgments of value; therefore, we also should always be allowed to make our own choices. If we did not protect our individual action our self-responsibility before God, would be stolen. Another biblical precept from which free enterprise was developed is "that man has a duty to maintain his freedom so that he can serve his Lord and Creator". It is our responsibility to save the most important freedom of all; that which allows us to serve the One True God. Without this right, we would all be turned into mere robots before God. Next, we should study the role of civil government in our lives.Psalm 72:1 says, "Give the king thy judgments, O God..." . In order to maintain our freedom correctly, the civil government must remain nothing more than a "protector of life and property and a punisher of those who physically harm or rob, steal, and cheat others." (Free Enterprise Economics). If Americans were to fear having too much liberty themselves, and ask the government to play a bigger role in their lives, then eventually the government would become "an arrogant and dictatorial regulator and master of the people, as well as a voracious redistributor of the people's wealth."(Free Enterprise Economics).  We absolutely cannot allow this to happen in our government. This is the ideal lead into the next part of this speech. That of the historical precedent. 

I could talk about many examples from the past where the government's role did blow out of proportion. But I won't. I believe that we can all clearly see the consequences of such a monstrous issue. Instead, I will now remind you of some of the past principles which have helped to make nations great. I will begin with the well-known story from the Bible about Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro came to visit Moses and found him completely swamped with all of the people's various legal and spiritual complaints. Jethro was quick to develop a solution to the problem. He advised Moses to select certain men in the camp to hold positions over other men, and to advise their fellow Israelites in the way of the law and also in the way of God. Moses was still to be the highest authority over such matters, but this way, the smaller affairs could be handled by other men, leaving Moses with a much lighter burden. This system will be referred to as dividing the government into vertical spheres. When the governmental power is left undivided, and rests upon only one, it is difficult to prevent tyranny. This kind of system has what is called a horizontal basis. The next example I would like to look at, is that of our own Constitution. The Constitution of the United States was founded upon a vertical basis by the founding fathers. And these men were familiar with their Bible. They wrote this extremely important document with their view of God in mind. We can see examples of their faith throughout the Constitution. So we can see that the pyramid shown by this book is correct. The pyramid goes like this: Economic systems take root and are influenced by the political system of a country. The political system is also influenced, this time by it's people's philosophy. And finally, people's philosophy is a direct result of their view of God. Therefore, the way a governmental basis is determined and developed is ultimately created by the way man views God. 

We have now defined terms, studied verses, and looked at historical examples all revolving around the free enterprise system. We can see that this system rests upon property, competition and profit. The system is obviously supported by the Bible as well as historical stories in which the use of this system made nations great, including our own great nation, the United States of America. Through the book Free Enterprise Economics in America I was able to discover the answer to my question "how long will freedom last in America?". Our freedom will last as long as we are willing to work towards building up our free enterprise and as long as we keep the government in its rightful place. Freedom does not sustain itself. We must take the steps to maintain our freedom by educating ourselves on the definition of a free enterprise system, studying what the Bible has to say about it, and by searching history itself for great examples of the system coming into play and making nations great.

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Aug. 22, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by MBF

Wow! I can't believe you wrote that! :) its really good!!!

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Sep. 9, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by RoseofThorns

That was very interesting! Do you speech class? Like NCFCA Tournaments? I do, and your speech reminded me of something that could be done at tournaments!

~Rose~

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