The United States has created the biggest and most prosperous economy in the world mainly due to our reliance on a free enterprise type system. In fact, our economy has been so successful that other economies in the world have started emulating us with similarly impressive results, most notably India and China in the last couple of decades.

But many observers are concerned that while competition is growing from increasingly market-driven economic systems abroad, the United States is beginning to abandon its market-based free enterprise heritage in favor of more government control and intervention in the economy. Other observers argue that our free enterprise system of many privately-owned (capitalistic) small businesses is being corrupted by the anti-competitive actions of large corporations and financial firms exercising undue influence over prices and resources in the market place.

The Third Economic Summit at The University of Findlay focused on the free enterprise system and to what degree we can continue to rely on it to drive our economic decisions and national prosperity under continually evolving conditions. Is it time to adopt a different form of economic structure, or should we reaffirm our historical commitment to the free enterprise system? To what degree can the free enterprise system be relied upon to deliver effective health care services to our citizenry? Or, is health care a “public good” that requires government involvement for the efficient and effective delivery of adequate health care services? What is the appropriate role of government in a free enterprise system? Can the free enterprise system (which relies on having many buyers and sellers determining the market price of goods and services) survive in an economy dominated by large businesses which have significant influence on the market price of goods and services? What are the future prospects for the free enterprise system in our country? These, and other, ideas were explored during the various panel sessions making up the Economic Summit.

Paul A. Sears, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Business
The University of Findlay