The American Way of Life (Part 11 of 28)

Part 11: of a 28-part series

Absolutely we’re the richest nation, because of individual enterprise — not because of the nasty corporations. They make up only 20% of our economy. The reason [for this] statistically is that middle-class workers [are] hired by small businesses and work for small enterprise – it’s simply a family trying to take care of itself. And lo and behold, as a family endeavors to take care of its own needs and its own supply, and provide for itself, it blesses others – inadvertently, without even intending to, because it’s a natural prosperity that comes from his own productivity. There is no prosperity without productivity. If you take away productivity, you have nothing to spread around.

So what encourages productivity? You know, we have middle-class workers – that’s the largest number [of our population]. But they are workers – that means they’re hired by someone. And 75% of this class of workers is hired by small businessmen and women. That’s phenomenal.

Americans have always believed they live in the land of opportunity, where anybody who has a good idea – anybody (that’s the worth of the individual) – determination, and the willingness to work hard, can start a business and be prosperous, because they’re willing to be productive and work. In practice, this belief in entrepreneurship has taken many forms.

To be continued…

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