Why is America so prosperous? Some people think it is because of our natural resources, or lack of population density, or isolation from Europe. Some even think we are so wealthy because we exploit weaker and poorer nations. Really? When we were weak and poor, we exploited stronger and wealthier nations, in order to become stronger and wealthier than them? That notion is obviously absurd. How about the issue of natural resources? Venezuela has the most proven oil reserves of any nation on earth, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2016. People are starving in the streets. A lot of African nations like the Congo have a wealth of natural resources, as does Mexico. We are vastly more wealthy than them. Now how about population density? Mexico is has a similar population density. They have also been isolated from Europe with all of their wars. They are fairly poor. Singapore and Japan are much more dense, and are fairly wealthy. They have very few natural resources. No, obviously it is not any of those things that caused our wealth, although they may have contributed somewhat. It is the freedom with which we were blessed, and that was written into our constitution, that has led to our prosperity. The Heritage Foundation compiles an Index of Economic Freedom annually, and in it they chart a comparison of economic freedom to wealth for over a hundred nations. There is a strong correlation between freedom and prosperity. Within 40 years of our constitution being ratified, America had a higher GDP per capita than Great Britain, the second wealthiest country in the world. That was despite a very bleak economic picture under the Articles of Confederation, with devastating debt, a nearly worthless currency, and economic hostilities between the states. Once the constitution was ratified, there arose an economic powerhouse in the United States unlike any the world had ever seen. The freedom of people to pursue their dreams and to benefit from their own efforts, ingenuity, and risk-taking led to a standard of living that was previously unseen and unimagined. Now, even people below the official government poverty line have more than the average person living in the major cities of Europe. America has led the world in innovations since its founding. The World Almanac and Book of Facts lists inventions and their country of origin, and over 60% came from America, even though we only have about 5% of the world’s population. It was truly a 5,000 year leap forward, as Cleon Skousen describes it. In other words, people were scratching out a living from the soil in basically the same way for about 5,000 years with very little advancement, until our constitution was ratified. Then there was a leap forward to automobiles, computers, space travel, and efficient mechanized farming. Read in much more depth about American freedom and prosperity, with data to back it all up, in The High Price of Socialized Medicine. We are constantly faced with choices between freedom and dependence. Choose freedom. Choose prosperity. Choose happiness.
