The Moral Imperative of Free Enterprise:
The Only Known
Solution to Poverty
Media and Resources
Michael Miller, Ph.D
Michael Miller is the Director of Programs at the Acton Institute and also oversees Acton's international work. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame, has an MA from Nagoya University's Graduate School of International Development (Japan), an MA in philosophy from Franciscan University, and an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird (The American Graduate School of International Management). Before coming to Acton, he spent three years at Ave Maria College of the Americas in Nicaragua where he taught philosophy and political science and was the chair of the philosophy and theology department. He has almost 10 years of international experience and has lived and traveled in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He has been published in the Washington Times, The Detroit News, The LA Daily News, and Crisis. His research interests include political economy, moral philosophy, economic development, and political theory.
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.
