At Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA), we believe American Free Enterprise is more than a system—it’s the cornerstone of our nation’s identity. For nearly four decades, PBA has celebrated American Free Enterprise Day, affirming the values that have built American society and the principles on which the university was founded. Dr. Brian Strow, Dean of the Marshall E. Rinker, Sr. School of Business, shares how American Free Enterprise not only fosters the freedom to pursue innovation, but also promotes well-being and human flourishing:
What is American Free Enterprise? I’ll start from the back and work forward.
Enterprise: The desire to do difficult things or to solve problems in new and creative ways. In Genesis 2:15, God placed man in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. God created each of us on purpose and for a purpose. He wants us to do difficult things and solve problems in new and creative ways.
Free: God granted us free will. He gives each of us a choice of how to use our talents and abilities. We can choose to use them to give God glory and to show love to our neighbor.
America: A group of people in 1776 founded a country not based upon an ethnicity or allegiance to a monarch, but upon allegiance to a set of principles. They wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator [so the system was put in place by God] with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
There you have it. A country was designed with the expressed purpose of allowing people to pursue God’s will in their lives. The US Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and it allows people to engage in enterprise as they see fit. The result has been that the US economy has produced more wealth for more people than any country in the history of the earth. In 2024, the US will again set a record for producing more wealth than in any other year in world history.
Also in 1776, in Scotland, a man named Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations. That was his second book written for popular culture. His first popular book was The Theory of Moral Sentiments. If you think Adam Smith promoted selfishness, you don’t know Adam Smith. You see, Adam Smith was a moral philosopher. He wanted to know why human flourishing took place in some countries and not in others. He wanted to adopt policies that increased human flourishing and made the world a better place.
Adam Smith pointed out that voluntary transactions made between two individuals created wealth for both parties in the transaction. The more we allow voluntary transactions to occur, the more wealth we create. Human flourishing for the masses doesn’t occur by large magnanimous acts; it occurs by compounding large numbers of wealth-creating voluntary transactions on top of each other.
The evidence is clear. There is more human flourishing in South Korea than in North Korea. There was more human flourishing in West Germany than in East Germany and more human flourishing in Hong Kong than in Maoist China. When countries allow people to freely engage in voluntary transactions, people flourish.
If there is anything we should agree upon as Christians, it is that we should work to reduce poverty and increase human flourishing. Convincing countries around the globe to increase economic freedom in the last half-century has reduced poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The free enterprise system is responsible for more poverty reduction than all charitable giving done throughout world history.
The system of American Free Enterprise is based upon the promise that people should be allowed to follow God’s will in their lives. In practice, it has created the most human flourishing of any economic system in world history. In theory and in practice, American Free Enterprise has stood the test of time.
PBA is blessed to celebrate this pillar of American history. On Thursday, November 14, Palm Beach Atlantic University will host its annual American Free Enterprise Day, honoring three distinguished business leaders who embody the values of the American Dream. Paul Leone, CEO of The Breakers, will be recognized as the main medalist. Additionally, Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, and Troy Maschmeyer, CEO of Maschmeyer, Inc., will be honored as companion medalists. This event is free and open to the public. To learn more and reserve your spot, visit www.pba.edu/afe.
