Page 14 - Cedarville Magazine Spring 2013 Volume 1 Issue 1

MBA
14 | Cedarville Magazine cedarville.edu/mba
Now enrolling the
inaugural class
starting fall 2013!
Equipping Christian Leaders
online MBAC E D A R V I L L E U N I V E R S I T Y
Johann Sebastian Bach was a devout Christian and prolific
genius. He wrote a cantata for every week of the Church calendar;
they fell off his pen. When he was asked, “Why do you write music?”
he replied, “I write music for the glory of God and the enjoyment
of man.”That is earned success. Your life is an instrument for God’s
glory. It has nothing to do with money.
It doesn’t matter how you count success — saving souls, cleaning
up the environment, or teaching kids to read. If you compare two
people who are precisely the same age, race, sex, religion, and have
the same level of university training, and both say
they have earned their success — even if one person
earns eight times what the second person earns —
they are equally likely to say they are happy about
their lives. Free enterprise offers a system where you
can match your skills with your passions and keep
the rewards.
You may object, saying, “Earned success sounds great, but can
everybody get it? We don’t all start from the same place. Some
people are born rich, smart, and beautiful; others not so much. You
can’t convince me free enterprise is a moral system until you can
convince me that it helps the poor.”
The Opportunity to Succeed
Since 1970, the percentage of the world’s population that lives on
less than $1 a day has declined by 80 percent. What caused that, the
fabulous success of the United Nations?The international monetary
fund? The World Bank? U.S. foreign aid? No, no, no, and no.
Globalization, free trade, entrepreneurship, rule of law, and
property rights — the American system of free enterprise — has
pulled billions of people around the world out of poverty. Someone
in China is sending her child to school for the first time. Someone
in sub-Saharan Africa is not burying a baby. Free enterprise is the
only choice for a Good Samaritan, as far as I’m concerned. That is
the best moral case for the system we can make. When we weaken
it and roll it back in America, we will be a little poorer, perhaps
inconvenienced, but someone in the world, unseen and unheard,
will die. Those are the stakes.
Free enterprise is the greatest antipoverty
achievement in the history of humankind.
There’s still too much poverty around the
world and in America, and I urge you to
dedicate your life to eradicating poverty.
Perhaps, like me, you consider yourself a
Matthew 25 Christian — when you invest
wisely, work hard, andmake good decisions,
you deserve your reward. But this chapter
with the parable of the talents concludes
with the admonition that whatever we do
for the “least of these” we do unto Christ
(Matt. 25:40).
What does the little girl in the car need?
She needs relief, and she needs opportunity.
I believe we need a safety net, even from the
government, for the truly indigent. But she
also needs opportunity and human dignity,
and only the free enterprise system will
make that possible.
Arthur C. Brooks is President of the American
Enterprise Institute and best-selling author
of The Road to Freedom: How to Win the
Fight for Free Enterprise. View a video of his
complete American Dream Conference remarks
at cedarville.edu/americandream.
FREE ENTERPRISE IS THE GREATEST
ANTIPOVERTY ACHIEVEMENT IN THE
HISTORY OF HUMANKIND