PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Saturday night, I took my daughter to a birthday celebration like none other at Truist Park in Atlanta. WOW!
She may be a little young to be reflective of our country’s special independence. I am not. Nor is Dr. Rick Franza.
RICK FRANZA: Such is the time for our country’s reflection on the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from England. I will attempt to explain why the United States is the best country for business, using the spelling of A-M-E-R-I-C-A to provide my rationale.
While I have always considered myself patriotic, my patriotism has been further bolstered by several documentaries I have watched on Netflix in recent weeks. As expected, these documentaries focused on the societal, cultural, and political implications of the founding of our country, but I was struck by how little they touched upon the economic implications.
The Founding Fathers believed in free enterprise, private property rights, and economic freedom, which helped allow our country to become the greatest for business and an economic superpower. So, on this 250th birthday of our country,
The United States of America is the greatest country for business because of:
- Accessibility: Because of all the freedoms in America, individuals and businesses have access to all the things that help make a business successful. First, they have access to markets. Domestically, the United States operates as the world’s largest trade-free zone. Given our country’s high median incomes, businesses have access to a vast consumer base. Businesses have access to foreign markets as well. Second, they have access to capital. Through venture capital, debt financing, and well-established public markets, businesses have access to the funds necessary to start or grow their business. Finally, the combination of a strong higher education system and a highly productive workforce provides access to a skilled talent pool to allow businesses to succeed.
- Meritocracy: America has truly proven to be the “Land of Opportunity.” The American economic system rewards hard work and new ideas. Almost half of the Fortune 500 countries were founded by immigrants or their children. Current or former Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) such as Ursula Burns (Xerox), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Larry Ellison (Oracle), and Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs) each grew up poor and rose to lead their large companies. Clearly, you do not have to start on third base to score.
- Entrepreneurial: The freedom of this country, enhanced by the demonstrated accessibility and meritocracy, has helped spawn an entrepreneurial spirit unmatched anywhere else in the world. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers, yet with risk often comes reward. Entrepreneurship has served as the fundamental engine of the U.S. economy. New and young businesses are the primary drivers of new employment in the U.S., while small firms disproportionately produce radical innovations and patents.
- Resilience: American business has consistently been defined by its ability to adapt, innovate, and recover from technological change, wars, and economic crises. Since the founding of the United States, there have been four “industrial revolutions” moving our economy from agrarian to industrial to technological to digital (“Information Age”) to our current “Intelligence Age,” featuring artificial intelligence and robotics. Business in the U.S. has sometimes led and always ultimately thrived in these changing environments. U.S. business has also recovered from two World Wars and economic crises such as the Great Depression, rampant inflation of the 1970s, and the Great Recession.
- Innovation: Innovation does not only come from entrepreneurial ventures, but it also comes from large businesses, universities, and research centers. The United States has a long history of innovation fueled by top-tier research and massive investment. Large businesses have long histories of reinvestment of revenues in innovation, and universities and research centers have become more focused on transferring technology to the private sector, resulting in more applications of their great work. Open markets encourage all players to try to improve on existing products.
- Competition: Whether in athletics, business, or any other arena, no country appears to have as fierce a competitive spirit as the United States. In business, this competitiveness is also driven by opportunity, provided by some of the characteristics presented above. Accessibility and meritocracy allow for an even playing field, which allows participants to be motivated to compete with a chance to succeed.
- Accountability: American businesses are accountable to their many constituencies: consumers, employees, investors, supply chain partners, and the communities in which they operate and market. The U.S. marketplace has laws and regulations in place to ensure such accountability, including consumer protection laws, financial reporting (for investors), and worker protections (e.g., OSHA). Such accountability provides critical assurances in a free market economy.
This Saturday, we will enjoy hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, fireworks, and patriotic music celebrating our country’s 250th birthday. While our country is not perfect, it does many things very well, and one of them is provide an environment for businesses to be successful. Please take a moment to be thankful for what we have and that our freedoms allow us to help improve the things that could be better.
