How Market-Driven Economies Create Community and Work Better

A Personal Reflection

Business icon Ken Langone is on Forbes magazine’s list of the richest people in the world, but he insists he’s not a self-made success. Mr. Langone, who grew up in a working class family in Roslyn Heights, New York, first made a name for himself on Wall Street, as billionaire Ross Perot’s banker. He would go on to co-found Home Depot, one of America’s largest retailers, and be a strategic investor in UNIFI, Salem Leasing, and a variety of great American companies – including Purple Crow.

Langone was introduced on Fox Business to discuss the memoir he wrote about his unique path to success called “I Love Capitalism! An American Story.”

Mr. Langone had been approached many times to share his life story in a book and turned down the opportunity until the 2016 presidential election. He said he was bothered by the new generation of young people who were gravitating toward Senator Bernie Sanders’ message promoting the benefits of socialist economies. Among other observations, Langone notes that “when people get a check from the government and do nothing for it – they’re taking away from them, in my opinion, self-respect.”

Langone contends that “America is the greatest country on earth,” and that a spirit of gratitude to God and to others – along with personal initiative – are keys for young people rising to forge their own American Dream. In a market economy, “the sky’s the limit,” Mr. Langone reminds us all, and it’s not the status of you or your family that will determine your success.

We are constantly hearing how all the competition and “greedy capitalism” in our world is the basis for violence and war. But is this so? What are the specific ways in which freedom and free markets promote cooperation and peace? How does this inform the role that government should play in the market if cooperation and peace are the goals? What are some specific ways government (and voters like you) can champion and promote human flourishing by promoting free market capitalism to make a country better?

Keep thinking about these things, especially every time you grab a pencil or a piece of bread! And remember the words of the writer G.K. Chesterton:

We are perishing for want of wonderment;

not for want of wonders!