Where does prosperity come from? Judging by American politics today, the answer is government.
Our political class treats the state as the source of the United States' economic success. Industries prosper because government subsidizes them. Companies invest because government offers preferential tax breaks. Markets function because government regulates them. Americans are provided for by government. It helps subsidize unemployment, pays for groceries, college, and healthcare. Retirees depend on public programs for income and medical coverage. There isn't a facet of our economy where government does not fancy itself the provider.
To any outsider, government plays the decisive role at every stage of American prosperity: directing production, restraining producers, and then distributing the proceeds.
What have we forgotten? Where prosperity comes from in the first place: a free market.
According to Henrik Ekelund, founder and chairman of BTS Group AB, the West is in the process of forgetting precisely that. We have over regulated our markets, and are beginning to pay the price.
Why do some nations prosper while others stay poor? Adam Smith asked that question 250 years ago, and it matters just as much today, as growth slows, regulation expands, and young families struggle to afford a home. Why Nations Prosper follows three nations and one entrepreneur across five continents to find out. Along the way, the documentary examines how markets, the rule of law, and individual freedom work together to create sustained economic growth, and why those gains have to be protected. Why Nations Prosper premieres November 1 on public television and YouTube. https://t.co/BenbOrRDY1
— Free To Choose (@FreeToChooseNet) October 2, 2026
"Growth in the Western world is slowing down," Ekelund said. "We are over-regulating our markets. The cost of living is going up. The rule of law is wobbling. Young families cannot afford to buy a home."
Yet look at the solutions offered to these problems. Almost none begin with freeing markets. When did our politicians decide the free market was no longer even worth trying?
Ask conservatives which system is better, socialism or capitalism, and the vast majority will answer capitalism. But put those same conservatives in a voting booth, or ask them which politicians they support, and that commitment too often disappears. A candidate can champion subsidies, tariffs, industrial planning, and new restrictions on businesses while still being celebrated as a defender of capitalism. If we would like to know how socialism topples the United States, that is your answer.
Where are the politicians making an unapologetic case for free markets, not merely lower taxes or fewer regulations, but less government control over the economy itself? That argument is conspicuously absent from modern conservatism, and it is time we stopped treating its absence as a minor concern.
Where is the commitment to competition, to building, to progress, and to self-reliance? Where is the ambition to leave the next generation a better world, not simply preserve what we already have? That ambition is being squeezed between the DSA and a defensive politics content to cling to yesterday’s gains.
Conservatives have to decide whether they believe in free markets or merely like proclaiming it. You cannot oppose socialism while insisting markets need more government control. You cannot borrow the left’s logic, blame capitalism for government’s mistakes, and call it conservatism. We need to champion free markets again, in policy, not just speeches. This is no longer a talking point. It is becoming a cultural, economic, and political imperative.
