We must also clear up misconceptions. Free enterprise does not mean shredding the social safety net, but championing policies that truly help vulnerable people and build an economy that can sustain these commitments. It doesn’t mean reflexively cheering big business, but leveling the playing field so competition trumps cronyism. It doesn’t entail “anything goes” libertinism, but self-government and self-control. And it certainly doesn’t imply that unfettered greed is laudable or even acceptable.

Free enterprise gives the most people the best shot at earning their success and finding enduring happiness in their work. It creates more paths than any other system to use one’s abilities in creative and meaningful ways, from entrepreneurship to teaching to ministry to playing the French horn. This is hardly mere materialism, and it is much more than an economic alternative. Free enterprise is a moral imperative.

To pursue the happiness within our reach, we do best to pour ourselves into faith, family, community and meaningful work. To share happiness, we need to fight for free enterprise and strive to make its blessings accessible to all.

(Arthur C. Brooks is the president of the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C.)

人们习惯认为幸福难以捉摸、稍纵即逝。对于一些人来说，获得幸福甚至是徒劳无功的。有人说“幸福就像是一只蝴蝶，当你追逐时，往往抓不住，但是如果你愿意静静地坐下来，它可能飞落在你身上。”

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