Wealth Creation and Self-Interest: Essential to Freedom
Wealth creation is not incidental to freedom—it is **essential** to it. The desire to work, to strive, to build, and to improve one’s condition is inseparable from the human pursuit of happiness. Just as happiness is not a destination but a journey, so too is wealth creation. It is the cumulative result of effort, discipline, risk, and personal responsibility over time.
In the American model, individuals are entitled to **keep what they earn** so they may tend to the needs of themselves and their families. This is not selfishness. It is **self-interest rightly ordered**—the very mechanism by which free societies flourish. A person who can provide for his family, plan for the future, and invest in his own improvement is a person who is independent, dignified, and resilient.
This bears repeating, because it has been deliberately obscured:
**Your self-interest is not negotiable.**
It is fundamental to your freedom.
It is fundamental to your freedom.
Self-interest is not greed. It is the moral claim each individual has over his own labor and its fruits. When that claim is violated—through confiscation, redistribution untethered from justice, or policies that punish productivity—freedom erodes. The incentive to work diminishes. Innovation stalls. Dependency grows. And dignity is replaced by permission.
The ability to work, to strive, and to build wealth is inextricably linked to liberty itself. Take away the reward for effort, and effort disappears. Take away ownership of labor, and autonomy collapses. Take away economic independence, and political freedom soon follows.
This doctrine affirms a simple but enduring truth: **a free people must be a productive people**. Wealth creation is not merely an economic outcome; it is a civilizational necessity. It sustains families, strengthens communities, funds innovation, and underwrites national strength. Most importantly, it preserves the independence of the citizen from the coercive reach of the state.
America was built by people who understood this intuitively. They did not ask permission to prosper. They asked only for the freedom to try.
That freedom must never be surrendered.
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