The Moral Imperative of Free Enterprise:
The Only Known
Solution to Poverty
Media and Resources
Michael Miller, Ph.D
Jay W. Richards is Research Fellow and Director of Acton Media at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology (with honors) from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was formerly a Teaching Fellow. He also has a Th.M. from Calvin Theological Seminary, and an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. He is the author of many scholarly and popular articles in publications such as the Washington Post, National Review Online, and Washington Times, as well as several books, including The Untamed God and The Privileged Planet with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez. He is executive producer of the documentaries The Call of the Entrepreneur (Acton Media, 2007) and The Birth of Freedom (Acton Media, 2008) and recently completed The Christian Case for Capitalism (HarperCollins/HarperOne, 2009).
About the Project
Beginning in 2008, Acton Institute will begin a multi-year campaign aimed at persuading Americans and other Westerners of the importance of free enterprise to the defeat of poverty in the developing world. A centerpiece of that campaign will be a documentary, which will focus on first hand examples of both failure and success from regions such as war-torn Rwanda. SEVEN funding will enable them to do first hand, original research on such stories, which will not only be published, but will help provide source material for the documentary and other elements of their larger campaign.
Acton Institute
The Mission of the Acton Institute is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles. The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is named after the great English historian, Lord John Acton (1834-1902). He is best known for his famous remark: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Inspired by his work on the relation between liberty and morality, the Acton Institute seeks to articulate a vision of society that is both free and virtuous, the end of which is human flourishing. To clarify this relationship, the Institute holds seminars and publishes various books, monographs, periodicals, and articles.
Entrepreneurs create products, services and jobs. They expand economies, improve people's lives, provide employment (high and rising wages) and bring about competition. A competitive environment, in turn, gives rise to efficiency, meritocracy and further innovations and entrepreneurial drive.
The potent combination of entrepreneurship and technological innovation can forge an environment that is conducive to further enterprise, involving even government policy in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.
