Journal Highlights: Roads I Have Traveled ... Excerpt #1 from November 1996

(In the early days of Project C.U.R.E. we had to develop our business strategy while we were in motion. We did not have someone else’s book to follow. Would we grow past Denver? Where would we get the supplies and pieces of medical equipment? What about warehouses, forklifts, volunteers? We had jumped off the top of the mountain and now we had to assemble the airplane in mid air before we hit the ground! Here is an example of one of those lonely thinking sessions.) 

ETHIOPIA, Nov.20, ’96: For most of the remaining time in London, I was able to catch up on my reading and some writing. I had time to think about just what Project C.U.R.E. might look like five years and ten years down the road. It is starting to take shape as an absolute twentieth-century miracle. 

We had all grunted and groaned together to push the big rock up the hill. Now that we are picking up a little momentum, we need to be even more diligent and even more sensitive to God’s direction. It seems like it would be wise and prudent to start planning on perhaps twenty to twenty-five Project C.U.R.E. warehouses in cities around the US, and possibly Canada. It just seems to make logical sense not to try to ship everything to Denver to warehouse and containerize. To truck medical goods from hospitals in Houston, Texas, to Denver; put those goods into a container; and then ship the container all the way back to Houston to put on a boat just doesn’t add up. It seems wiser to collect and containerize the materials right at or as close to the point of donation as possible. That would do several things to expedite matters: 

1. Over time we would save millions of overland shipping miles. 
2. It would keep Denver’s facilities from having to become too big. 
3. By spreading out the operation, we could utilize smaller warehouse facilities and also tap into additional volunteer pools as the project spreads around the country. 
4. Local medical-supply donors would be able to link local faces with Project C.U.R.E., as they keep in touch with volunteers who come around to visit them, rather than just seeing some disinterested overland truck driver pull up and then drive away. 
5. It would give perhaps thousands more people the opportunity to get involved in a hands‑on missions mobilization project. 
6. Local people developing relationships with hundreds of doctors, hospitals, and clinics would be able to ferret out millions more dollars’ worth of medical supplies than would one Denver‑based operation.

Those are just some of the factors on the positive side of the ledger. Of course, on the negative side … 

1. We would create an absolute logistical and managerial nightmare. 
2. We would immediately have to have people from our office ready to go to the new locations and train the warehouse manager, those who pick up the donated materials, those who pack the container, and so on. We would have to send our people out to make the initial introductions to suppliers like Baxter International, Owens and Minor, McGaw, Bristol, Johnson and Johnson, General Electric, Picker, etc., at all those new locations. 
3. We would have to have available trucks with lift gates, at least one pallet jack per warehouse, perhaps one forklift per warehouse, wooden pallets, donated warehouse space with loading docks that would match the height of the cargo containers, etc.

I believe the scheduling of container shipping and the decision for the final destination of the loads will always be handled through the Denver office, as well as all the receipting of donations and the tracking of the materials. That will give the operation stability and continuity and will always allow us to maintain our integrity with our donors, our recipients, and the Internal Revenue Service. The on‑location warehouse managers could fax or e‑mail the inventory of items picked up on a given day and the donor’s name. Denver could put that information into the computer and issue written receipt letters the next day. That would let us know exactly what we have in inventory in each location at any given time. From that inventory we could determine what and when to ship to a recipient country.

 Next Week: Who will pay for all this?

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

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Journal Highlights: Roads I Have Traveled ... Excerpt #4 September 1998

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (cont.): The clinics I visited this afternoon were embarrassingly short of any medications or supplies. When I inquired about the lack of pharmaceuticals and basic supplies, the attendant at the Barranca clinic wrinkled his forehead and sort of looked at me in a puzzled way.


“We are pleased we have these supplies. We just received them yesterday. Before these supplies, we had not received any others since last April” was his reply. He then proudly showed me a small wooden box with an ill-fitting wooden lid. Inside the box was inoculation medicine for children. The medicine, which must be refrigerated, was packed in ice cubes that were rapidly melting in the hot climate. None of the clinics I visited had any kind of refrigeration. 

This evening I was invited to join the executive committee of the Rotary Club for dinner. There I had the opportunity to tell them about the work of Project C.U.R.E. around the world. The genuine kindness of the people and the dedication to making their city of one hundred thousand people a better place to live really encouraged me. They were almost overwhelmed that Project C.U.R.E. would come to their city with the possibility of helping them. No other organization has ever come to help them. 

At dinner Dr. Miguel de Pena told me that their main hospital has been without an X-ray machine for months. Some people in Miami said they would try to help them get another X-ray machine, but Dr. Miguel never heard from them again. The committee told me that Project C.U.R.E. coming to La Vega is an answer to their prayers. We talked about the fact that I had not even counted on getting La Vega into my schedule until sometime in 1999. But rearranging the schedule for the Vietnam trip left just these few days available, and I felt strongly that I should contact Cesar Abreu regarding my trip to the Dominican Republic. It almost seemed, they said, like it was divine providence. 

They have been totally without access to even one X-ray unit for almost six months. The old, broken General Electric unit had been dismantled and was lying on a piece of concrete slab between two buildings. I asked what they do for X-rays for diagnosis. They simply replied, “We do without.”

I got into quite a discussion with all of the medical people in the room regarding the philosophy that the government could promise and deliver adequate health care to the total population without charging each patient some amount for the service. When I brought up the subject, I knew immediately that I had hit a raw nerve.

“Everywhere I go today around the world,” I observed, “those with health-care responsibilities for the general public are coming to the conclusion that their government cannot continue to expect to cover all costs of health care. What makes you think the Dominican Republic can cover everything for everybody? Obviously you are not doing it now, are you?”

Their answer to me was typical. “The politicians here depend on the vote of the people to gain office. Any candidate running for an elected office who would even mention the possibility of not giving free health care to the constituents would be a fool. He would never get elected.”

We had to move on with the assessment study, but my final thought on the subject was to challenge them that no one is receiving health care for free now in the Dominican Republic, and in my opinion, it will only get worse in quality, not better, until they figure out a way for the individual patients receiving the service to directly contribute something toward the services they receive.

The fact that the main hospital is trying to function without an X-ray machine, without monitors of any kind, with only one small autoclave, and with no lab analysis equipment certainly underscores the conclusion that the hospital simply needs everything.

Next Week: Designing a Plan

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

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Journal Highlights: Roads I Have Traveled ... Excerpt #3 from September 1998

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (cont.): Following lunch, Dr. Miguel agreed to go with us to four of the outlying rural clinics to let me evaluate them. Cesar had arranged for his wife to go with us as our interpreter. I had viewed many similar clinics in the backcountry areas of Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Cuba, and Haiti. As soon as I approached the clinic, I said to myself, Oh, my goodness. If I were to ever get sick or be in an accident, I wouldn’t want to come to this place!    

The first clinic was Maria Auxihadora, which, I was told, means “Mary, the helper.” The clinic serves an extremely poor area, much like a favela or squatter’s area in Brazil. There is really nothing available for the people there even though I was informed that the facility is crowded with thirty to forty people every morning needing medical help. 

The second clinic we visited was of special interest to me. In the heart of the old city of La Vega is an old, historic fortress complete with double sets of iron gates and battlement walls. On the back of the fortress lot is where the ancient prison is located. In fact, on the walls of the fortress prison are the remaining hooks where the prisoners were suspended when they became incorrigible or unruly. 

Now, however, the old fortress has been given over to the fire department of La Vega. No budget money is allocated to the department, so of necessity it operates as a volunteer effort. Housed also within the facility is the bombero (fire brigade) paramedic clinic. In addition to all the fire calls, ambulance runs, and automobile accidents that the paramedic firemen handle, over five thousand people from the neighborhoods come to the fire station for medical assistance. 

I shuddered as I thought of my fire-chief son, Jay, and all his buddies having to put up with the unbelievably atrocious conditions of the bombero fortress. The old, beat-up fire trucks are now parked in the old prison building. Two big trucks are totally inoperable. Two small “scat” trucks, used for quick dispatch on smaller fires or accidents, were sort of homemade, with plastic tanks strapped down in the back of two pickup trucks. The bunker gear the firemen are expected to wear to fight fires are ragtag uniforms from heaven only knows where. The clinic consists of two rooms containing almost nothing. The only flash of hope within the walls of the fortress is the thirty-one-year-old son of Cesar and Josephina Abreu, who has personally taken on the fire and paramedic project with a passion. He saved his own money and traveled to Texas A&M University to learn more about firefighting. He has qualified as a paramedic and is cramming in additional courses from the medical school. In many ways, he reminds me of my son Jay. I suggested to Cesar Jr. the possibility of getting acquainted with Jay, and he jumped at the chance. Perhaps something can be done to get them together in the future. What might happen if there was a Project C.U.R.E. for fire brigades? 

Ambulance and Fire Gear sent to the Bomberos Brigade

Ambulance and Fire Gear sent to the Bomberos Brigade

Next Week: Dominican Republic Health Care

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

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Journal Highlights: Roads I Have Traveled ... Excerpt #2 from September 1998

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (cont.): The people of La Vega, Dominican Republic, are a very noble and proud lot. And at the top of their “Proud of” list is the fact that they reside in the beautiful valley Christopher Columbus discovered in 1492. Back in Mrs. Zinks’s second-grade class, I had memorized the ditty “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But in the interim it has taken years of meandering around the earth, which has indeed been proven to be round in shape, to finally observe for myself where Columbus landed. Almost from the minute I arrived in Santiago, my hosts began talking about their heritage and how privileged they are to live in the finest city in America. 

Being somewhat of a history buff myself, I responded by asking lots of questions about Columbus, Spain, and early life in the original and real America. So following our visit to the geriatric center, Cesar Abreu and Dr. Miguel asked if I would like to visit the original city Columbus founded. How could I refuse? 

While riding down the road, I received a post-graduate degree in Spanish American history. The large island of Hispaniola wasn’t always divided in two, with Haiti possessing about one-third and the Dominican Republic possessing the other two-thirds. First the Arawak and Taino natives had free run of the entire paradise. In 1492, Columbus landed somewhat confused. He believed he had discovered a new trade route to India. Seeing later that he had, in fact, landed on an island, his navigators pretty much convinced him that he had landed in what we know now as Japan. 

Columbus left the island to deliver his report to the queen of Spain. His charge had been to discover gold and find a way to mine it and return it to Spain. His report included the fact that he had located gold and that his Indians would be able to mine the treasure. So he was given permission to return again in 1496. While in Spain, though, he spoke of his new Americana as being the most beautiful spot in the whole world. 

On his second trip to the island, Columbus brought horses, implements, and eventually one thousand Spaniards and started building the town of Santo Domingo. Spain had dreams that from that stronghold they would be able to set out and conquer all of the Americas. 

Cesar showed me the original site of the city and remaining structures. I was able to photograph the brick fortress, with round vaults or turrets designed for defense. I learned that the ships coming from Spain often carried Spanish-made bricks in the ship’s hold to be used as ballast for the voyage. Once at their destination, they used the bricks to construct the main buildings.

Eventually an earthquake leveled the entire city, which had grown to a population of twenty thousand. The Spanish inhabitants felt that the earthquake had been directly sent by God because of the cruel way the Spaniards had been treating the Indians by working them in the mines. So they moved the city, totally abandoning the old structures and building once again farther out into the flat valley. 

Additionally, because of their assumed guilt regarding their treatment of the Indians, the Spaniards went back to the queen and convinced her that they should begin importing black workers from West Africa to do the work in the mines and sugarcane fields and on the cattle farms. Thus, the introduction of black slaves into the Americas. 
 

By 1801, the black slaves revolted and established Haiti as the first independent country in Latin America. But the graft, corruption, and heavy-handed cruelty of the black Haitians drove the Dominicans to declare independence in 1844. Today there is still a high degree of strained relations and mistrust between the Haitians and the Dominicans. Spain occasionally stepped back into the history of the Dominican Republic, and after the US Marines occupied the island from 1918 to 1924, a constitutional democratic government was established in the Dominican Republic.

It really sounds funny to hear the Dominicans talk about a constitutional democracy, since from 1930 to 1961, a virtual dictator, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, ruled the Dominican Republic. But the people’s hatred for the dictator grew during this time, and he was assassinated in 1961. Then, once again, in 1965 the US Marines stepped in and restored a degree of civility to the region until the democratic system could again have a fighting chance.

While visiting the Santo Cerro location high up on a mountain overlooking the original city developed by Columbus, we were able to sit in on Mass at a beautiful and picturesque Catholic church. Just outside the church was a small memorial garden with a tree growing, which is supposed to be a direct descendant of the tree Christopher Columbus planted there. Inside the church was a metal grate that covered a “sacred hole,” also dating back to Columbus’s time. 

I was told a story about how Columbus and his men retreated to the mountain for safety and to defend against the Indians, who were determined to kill all the intruding Spaniards. As the Indians were fighting their way uphill and were just about to close in on Columbus and his friends, Columbus had some of his men dig a hole. He constructed a crude cross and dropped the cross base into the hole. As the lower end of the cross dropped with a thud into the hole, Columbus gazed upon his thousand men about to be killed by over ten thousand Indian warriors.

Immediately, a blinding light flashed, and the Virgin Mary herself appeared and delivered the Spaniards from certain death. Traditionally the grated hole inside the church is exactly the same hole into which Columbus placed the cross. When confronted with the seeming unfairness of the whole episode to the Indian natives, the pat answer was that obviously the Virgin Mother was decidedly on the side of the Spaniards because they had come to bring the gospel of Christ and the Catholic church to the island. The subjects of old- and new-world domination seem to take somewhat of a secondary or clandestine position during such lofty discussions.

Next Week: Bombero (fire brigade) 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

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Journal Highlights: Roads I Have Traveled ... Excerpt #1 from September 1998

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Requests for Project C.U.R.E. to come and bring medical assistance arrive at our office from a wild variety of intentions as well as locations. As I write this journal entry, we are presently shipping donated medical goods to sixty-four different countries. We often ship to several different regions and multiple hospitals within each country. Many times we begin our work in a country as a request from some church or missions group. At other times, the government of the country makes the initial contact. Still other times, a friend or a family member of an indigenous doctor might report to us a need and request our help. 

Our involvement in the Dominican Republic has had a different little twist. A couple of years ago, I was invited to speak about our Project C.U.R.E. work at a Rotary Club meeting in Littleton, Colorado. Subsequent to that, Dr. Doug Jackson, the president and CEO of Project C.U.R.E., had been invited to join the prestigious downtown Denver Rotary Club, the seventh largest such club in the world. Word began getting out about Project C.U.R.E.’s international work through Rotary members. 

A couple of years prior, a small boy from the Dominican Republic named Raul had been brought to Denver for specialized surgery. The arrangements had all been made through the Rotary Club. The entire surgery was donated, but during the operation complications set in, and the doctors admitted the boy would die if he did not have a kidney and liver transplant. Warren Zeller, another Rotarian in Littleton, heard about the situation. Right at the time Raul’s operation was taking place, Warren Zeller’s grandson was tragically killed in an accident. The Zeller family donated the needed organs for the transplant, and Raul lived. He later returned to La Vega, Dominican Republic, where he now lives as a happy and active boy. Warren Zeller stayed in touch with Raul and told the La Vega Rotary about Project C.U.R.E. Warren was in attendance at the club meeting at which I spoke in Littleton. 

About eight months ago, I received an official Request for Assistance form from the La Vega, Dominican Republic. 

Next Week: An education in Dominican Republic

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

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Introducing: The Roads I Have Traveled, A Journey to Deliver Health and Hope

Project C.U.R.E. actually started before 1987. But, since that was the year they sent their first ocean-going cargo containers into Brazil, that is the year they use as their official starting date. Project C.U.R.E. quickly began maturing into a viable and recognized humanitarian organization, shipping multi-millions of dollars’ worth of donated medical supplies and pieces of equipment each year to needy developing countries around the world. 

Project C.U.R.E. (Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment) was created to “identify, solicit, collect, sort, and distribute medical supplies and services according to the imperative needs of the world.” Project C.U.R.E. operated on the economic premise that a developing country could not build a successful economy on sick people. The idea was if you help the people get healthy, you will also achieve a healthier economy. It gave opportunity for everyone involved to end up better off. 

Project C.U.R.E. had to prove itself that it could be trusted to receive and handle highly risk-laden commodities. The medical donors knew that if Project C.U.R.E. were to mess up in the receiving and distributing of their medical goods, the community would not just hold Project C.U.R.E. responsible, but would reach through and past Project C.U.R.E. to any deeper pockets available. That would involve risk to the medical institution or manufacturer that had made the donation. In the past it had apparently been easier and less risky for the medical industry to simply bury their overstock and second generation items in either warehouses or local landfills. 

Early on, a policy was implemented by Project C.U.R.E. that no medical goods would be distributed to any place in the world unless some representative from Project C.U.R.E. had first gone there to personally perform an extensive needs assessment report on that particular hospital or clinic. That was part of the due diligence and accountability that was accepted by them to maintain the integrity of the endeavor. 

In the beginning, that seemed like a simple task. But as Project C.U.R.E. began to grow, word got out that they were donating millions of dollars in medical equipment each year to recipients around the world. If the organization helped one hospital in South America or Africa, ten more institutions would hear about the donation. The requests for assistance multiplied exponentially. 

Gradually, the medical community and industry began to feel confident working with Project C.U.R.E. In fact, many of the organizations were discovering that it was just good business to include a partnership with Project C.U.R.E. into their corporate strategy. It was good public relations to be identified with supporting an effective international humanitarian endeavor. 

Other corporations were finding that it made a lot of sense, financially, to be generous with Project C.U.R.E. by emptying their warehouses of overstocked goods and last week’s “great sellers.” Each week brought new and improved items that had come on line because of a company’s aggressive and successful research and development departments. Project C.U.R.E. could take those donated life-saving items, distribute them, and also work with the donors on receiving any accounting advantages available. 

Dr. James W. Jackson, founder of Project C.U.R.E., began carefully documenting everything in his official Travel Journals regarding the philosophy, design, implementation, and distribution of the operation of Project C.U.R.E. The Journalsare based on his personal travels to more than 150 countries around the world. Reading the narrative journals and viewing the volumes of photos will allow a person to travel with Dr. Jackson to thousands of locations worldwide and be a part of the growth and effectiveness of Project C.U.R.E. 

Dr. Jackson claims that, “Specifically, I felt it necessary (1) to validate the need around the world for donating medical supplies to developing countries, (2) to validate the fact that there were ample sources of overstock medical supplies and pieces of medical equipment sufficient to sustain a humanitarian donation business, and (3) to document all the episodes and miracles of such an endeavor.” The individual Travel Journals have become one-of-a-kind research articles covering important facts about thousands of international venues and institutions. Such information had never before been compiled. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has applauded Dr. Jackson and told him that no one has accomplished what he has achieved in compiling such information. Even the ministers of health of the countries have not gone where you have gone and compiled the information. Additionally, the U.S. Department of State awarded Dr. Jackson with the coveted Florence Nightingale Award for his outstanding service. 

Winston–Crown Publishing House is proud to announce an agreement with Dr. Jackson to publish his entire collection of travel journals under the title The Roads I Have Traveled: A Journey to deliver Health and Hope. 

While the collection is being processed for publication, brief excerpts from the journals will be featured each week here on Dr. Jackson’s blog site. That will give his readers a glimpse into the exciting material, and introduce them to the vast array of content through snippets and examples of people, places, events, and miracles chronicled in the journals. 

Get your inspirational passports and visas in order so that you can be a part of the exciting adventure of delivering health and hope around the world. 
Bon Voyage.

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Travel Journals

I remember being told when I was just a little kid that one of these days your whole life will suddenly flash before your eyes. I decided there and then that I was going to make sure that it was well worth watching!

I also recall from one of my classes at the university that in order for a happening or situation to become a living adventure you somewhere down the line have to recount it. Where I was born, where I lived, and where I have been is probably not too important. But what I have done with all the time and all the collected information of my lifetime probably should be of interest. Steve Jobs of Apple fame used to say that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do it. I believe that Project C.U.R.E. has, indeed, changed its world.

From the very beginning of Project C.U.R.E., I felt impressed . . . almost like a thumb in my back . . . to try to capture the story and document the facts by keeping a careful and faithful journal of the endeavors of Project C.U.R.E. I felt compelled to write down the chronological flow of events while in motion so that the indisputable miracles would be substantiated by written narrative and photographic evidence of the times, and not reconstructed later by relying on lukewarm memory and salvaged bits of souvenirs.

I asked for help from God with the task and he has been faithful to me with the journal-keeping from the beginning until about 2008, when it was required of me to stop the pace of international travel. I have spent hundreds of hours on airplanes, boats, trains, helicopters, and in the strangest of places around the world, writing down words on computer keyboards and pads of paper. Those writings documented the names of places, people, and descriptions of events that permanently recorded the fascinating phenomenon of Project C.U.R.E. It became commonplace to find myself writing while stranded in a cheap hotel in Da Nang, Vietnam, with the ravaging flood waters preventing me from even leaving the building, or to still be writing down words in the darkest African night while sitting in my tent in the heart of Tanzania, a pen in one hand and a flickering oil lantern in the other hand.

Before the start of each trip, I would pray specifically that God would give me wisdom and favor: favor with the people where I would be working in the foreign locations, and wisdom from God to be at the right place at the right time saying the right things to the right people.

In places like North Korea, Cuba, northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Beirut, or Iraq, I would have to be careful and hide my writings in my belongings so that my written observations would not be discovered during searches of my bags and held against me as spy material. I had to be equally careful with respect to the thousands of photographs which I have taken in my attempts to further substantiate my written findings.

It was my goal to have each journal entry finished in narrative form by the time the landing wheels of the passenger jet touched the tarmac of Denver’s airport. If I allowed one day lapse before I had written it all down, I would lose some of the sharp details of the trip. So, on long international flights, I would be the guy at night in the economy section with the cabin light on trying to finish my assignment.

Now we are preparing to publish all twenty-five years’ of narrative travel journals. It is going to be a huge endeavor, and will necessitate several volumes. This will be as close to the actual accounting of the history of Project C.U.R.E. available anywhere. Reading these original, un-cut journals will allow my friends to travel with me to thousands of locations worldwide and be a part of the philosophical and logistical development of the first quarter-century of the organization.

I have written books and articles based on stories from the travel journals, but none of those writings can give the progressive description of what was happening with Project C.U.R.E. on this side of the oceans as well as internationally. I can think of no better way to share so completely with my friends the thrill, heartbreak, frustration, and triumphs of the incredible global work of Project C.U.R.E. I’m delighted and honored that you’ve chosen to join me on this educational journey .  

Next Week: An explanation as to how this journal introduction will work. 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

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Onward

For the past many months I have closed out each blog with the same simple phrase: 
         (Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics).

Well, it is now time to close the research books and get on with the project and the production of the book. The subject matter of the book will be the result of combining the discipline of economics with the practicality of Real Life 101. I think the title will have something to do with the idea of “Better-Off.” 

Books come into being for a number of different reasons and through a number of different methods. Some books move through the birthing process over a rather concise and calculated gestation period. Some are hatched. Others are products of a metamorphosis from worm to cocoon to butterfly. When born, some are quite unattractive, some are pleasant to behold, and others are downright stunning! 

All authors intuitively know that their works are destined to be award winners. And they probably would be right, were it not for the muddled thinking of the reviewers and the unreasonableness of the public: They just never got my point. But books of all sorts continue to be produced. 

Over the months I have tried to utilize the blog-posting process to launch some of the observations, responses, and conclusions I have encountered over the past forty-plus years and the millions of miles traveled to more than 150 countries. I have greatly appreciated and depended on your responses and interaction to help me determine direction and fields of interest. 

I am so appreciative of Winston Crown Publishing House and its willingness to run my blogs each Tuesday morning for the past nearly five years. I also greatly appreciate the folks there having published my last four books, of which three received first place gold EVVY Awards, and one received a bronze award. They will also be the organization publishing the new cultural economics book. 

Next Week: We will be sharing with you the exciting new direction for the weekly blogs of the near future. Thanks for joining me each week. Thanks for being my friends!
 

Better-Off: Conclusion

Adam Smith is a hero to me because I see him as the first cultural economist. He was the first to note the curious connection between private interests and cultural interests. Individuals and businesses seeking to advance their own self-interests, and operating within the structure of a highly competitive market system, would miraculously promote the cultural best interest as well as the economic best interest at the same time. It began to prove out that as the individuals and businesses were allowed the freedom to choose their own options as to what they felt would be best for them, lo and behold, all the people of the culture began ending up better off. That was definitely an unintended consequence, but a welcomed and marvelous happening.

As we learned earlier, Adam Smith explained this simultaneous phenomenon as being guided by an invisible hand. We even see it in action today as businesses seek to build new and improved products to increase profits. Those enhanced products, like computer applications, smart phones, and industrial robots, increase the culture’s well-being. Those businesses use the least costly combination of natural and human resources because in doing so it is in their own best interests. To do otherwise would put their enterprises in jeopardy. But the company’s use of scarce resources in the most cost-effective ways benefits the culture as a whole, and frees up precious resources to produce even additional goods and services that the culture wants.

We have discovered that self-interest is different than greed. The freedom to pursue self- interest becomes the greatest method known to mankind to manage the billions and billions of individual small decisions of people seeking to better employ their resources and labor in ways other people find helpful. The socialist’s government model of centralized decision making could never come even close to determining the most correct and efficient answer to the billions of everyday decisions open to individuals and cultures.

The leaders of the fresh, new American experiment of 1776 seemed to get an intuitive glance into the possibilities of liberty and free enterprise, even though a lot of the good results were admittedly unintended and were only realized as the experiment unfolded over time.

The new Americans were God fearing and were determined to acknowledge and honor the principles of his economic system as well as principles of kindness, justice, and righteousness in their culture and adopted economy. And, over time, their traditions, institutions, and dreams for the future began to materialize. As they were free to pursue the free enterprise model, they began to experience true freedom for themselves:

· Built- in Efficiency: The new economic system encouraged the efficient use of resources and guided the new Americans into production of goods and services most wanted and needed by the citizens. They were encouraged to develop and adopt the most efficient techniques in utilizing their resources for production and consumption in the new country.

· Built- in Incentives: The free enterprise economic system promoted the acquisition of new skills and trades, gave people reason to work hard and be frugal in their lifestyles, and made it profitable for them to be innovative in solving their cultural and economic challenges. By assuming calculated risks and being innovative, they began to realize higher incomes and the creation of new opportunities of employment for fellow citizens. Many times the reward for those advances translated into higher standards of living.

· Built- in Freedom: The major reward for the pursuit of the free enterprise system flowing from the experiment of 1776 was the realization of personal freedom. The alternative economic systems of centralized government lacked in efficiency, incentives, and most of all freedom. The new system emboldened economic activity without coercion or undue interference, subject only to the penalties and rewards built into the economic system itself.

The unintended consequences set into motion as a result of the determined pursuit of freedom of economic and cultural choice were nothing less than astounding. Nothing else compares historically with the results of the American experiment of 1776. The system thrives on freedom and liberty. The multitudes of quiet and persistent cultural and economic entrepreneurs flowing out from that experiment have absolutely altered the history of this world.

The chances of the experiment ever happening again are very slim, indeed. It will never happen again the same way, for certain. But even were the restart button ever to be pushed again in the future, and we are slammed back into the dark ages,desperately groping for a new period of enlightenment, there is verifiable evidence recorded in history that once upon a time there lived upon the face of the planet earth a people whose hearts burned within them to experience a cultural and economic phenomenon. Here the people were willing to pay the price of personal responsibility to cultivate with kindness, justice, and righteousness an economic and cultural system that honored liberty and freedom and personal integrity. 

As for the rest of my own life, I fully intend to spend all my energies and creativity for as many days as I have left, on countering the wrong headed thinking of those individuals who would gladly trade the security, growth, and sustainability of the free enterprise economic system for a short-term rush of political expediency through deficit spending, vote buying, and economic redistribution. I want to expand our economic thinking into the possibilities of abundance, choice, and accomplishment, rather than the fear driven model of scarcity, choice, and cost. I want to cast my lot with those who believe that our brightest days are just ahead as we whole-heartedly pursue the secrets of the riches that are yet unknown to us but there for our discovery and use on this earth.

But whatever happens in the future, I choose, as other thankful citizens have chosen,to pledge my allegiance to the grand and glorious experiment of 1776, and to honor those who stood for what they believed and lived to experience the extravagant results and even the goodness of the unintended consequences. We actually had the occasion to experience a cultural and economic life where we were all . . . Better-Off.

(Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics) 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

Better-Off: Unintended Consequences

It was an improbable experiment that took place in 1776 starting in Philadelphia with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Seldom, if ever, had there been a nation-building endeavor organized on such uncommon denominators. The steadfast incorporators had declared liberty, and were determined to experience the fullness of freedom. But in reality they could scarcely even comprehend the world-altering power they were holding in their hands.

They had dreamed that they would know enough freedom to be able to experience the new and enticing system of free enterprise. But they discovered that it was in the dedicated pursuit of free enterprise that they found the fullness of freedom. It was an unintended consequence to find that the most precious thing provided by a free enterprise economy was not just the abundance of material wealth, but freedom itself.

The incorporators were bent on preserving their newly acquired liberty, improving the well-being of the new nation, and guaranteeing the wise use of their resources. They knew that their only hope was through the understanding and preservation of not only their coveted culture, but also through their development of a stable economy.

The historical serendipity of the 1776 experiment was in the fact that not only was it the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but 1776 was also the year of the publishing of the Scottish economist Adam Smith’s book, An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The book was a compilation of Adam Smith’s observations as he traveled and sought the answer to what causes one nation to be rich and another nation to be poor.

Adam Smith equated wealth with income and the ability to generate income. His findings showed that a nation that can generate high levels of income is wealthy, and one that is capable only of low levels of income is poor. What is it that allows a nation to create a high level of income? What is it that makes a nation wealthy? In his book he simply recorded his observations. He commented then on such unique observations as division of labor, specialization, incentives, levels of taxation, freedom of cultural and economic choice, and the opportunity to pursue the objectives and directions that are of most interest to each individual.

The incorporators of the 1776 American experiment had been greatly influenced by the observations of Adam Smith. His insights fit snugly with their ideals of independence, self-reliance, and limited government that was responsible to the people rather than the people being enslaved by the government. But what neither Adam Smith nor the young American leaders comprehended was what would be the history-making results, when for the first time those ideals could be worked out in real life, in a situation where it was possible for free enterprise to not just be haltingly tolerated, but encouraged to flourish. Since a national economic system of free enterprise had never really been tried in such laissez-faire settings, no one could fully predict the potency of the economic outcome.

The leaders of the new nation had a deep respect for the rule of law, and realized the unique necessity for a limited government to fully enforce the powers of the law. One of the basic concepts of free enterprise is that the individual citizen has the right to hold and own private property. With that goes the right to exclusively make use of the property or to transfer it to another individual of one’s choice. People are free to make voluntary agreements with each other regarding their private property or personal labor. Contracts, therefore, are vital to the enterprise system.

Contracts and agreements, however, are meaningless unless they are enforced. Free enterprise could not exist without a legal entity to hold contract makers to their agreements. So, without a viable government to enforce agreements there could be no contracts, and without contracts there could be no free enterprise.

In addition, property rights, including intellectual property through copyrights, patents, or trademarks, work to facilitate those transfers and exchanges within the system. Because of the long-term protection of the rights, people are encouraged to write more books and music. The title to a piece of farm equipment, or an indentured deed to a plot of ground, assures the buyer that the seller is the legitimate owner. The right of property owners to designate who will receive their property when they die helps sustain the confidence in those property rights. Those are all subtle benefits of the free enterprise system. Those benefits were not necessarily designed and plugged into the free enterprise system before it was formalized.

On the consumer side of the equation, free enterprise ensures purchasers they can buy the goods and services that best satisfy their wants and agree with their budgets. And workers are free to try to enter any line of work for which they are qualified. All of those benefits came as unintended consequences of the pursuit of freedom of choice.

Next Week: Better-Off Conclusion

(Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writings project on Cultural Economics) 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House