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Our economic leadership often is discussed by way of dollars, but it’s about much more than that. It’s about the well-being of the American people.
The economy has one purpose—to organize our labors to produce the goods and services that households need and desire. After all, the root word of economics refers to the household, which is the foundation of society.
Though much of the conversation here will be about competition, there is another way to frame it: freedom. The freedom to build, to innovate, and to decide what your family needs to thrive. It is through economic freedom that a healthy competitive market arises.
Economic freedom allows us to use price signals to properly coordinate our work across billions of people the world over. It fosters the delicate process of experimentation and innovation required to improve quality of life and save time.
With our families and communities on our minds, people are naturally risk-averse. The economic structures produced by free peoples in free markets lean toward stability and resilience all on their own. Risk aversion is itself something of value.
However, these organic, prosperity-producing systems share the road with another entity, an entity that has the power to steamroll over road and sidewalk alike: the government.**
We must also remember this:
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages."
― Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol 1