Free Enterprise Is About Morality, Not Just Money

I haven’t always lived in Grand Rapids. I was born in New York—in Brooklyn, in fact. The Old Brooklyn, when we had the Dodgers. But old or new, things are a lot different out there, to put it mildly.

I came to realize this when I first moved out to western Michigan, back in 1987. Everyone’s nice. Life is slower. You stop to smell the roses. That’s not how we do things where I’m from. While I acclimated over the years, I was reminded once again of the differences in about 2002, when my sister and her husband moved out here.

A few weeks after they got to town, I stopped by their new house to check in on them and see if they needed anything. I got to talking with my brother-in-law, Lou. He was a real salt-of-the-earth kind of guy—true working class. He used to deliver heavy seltzer bottles up three and four flights of stairs and worked long hours in construction. He was big and burly because he needed to be. Most people find Lou pretty imposing.

We shot the breeze for a few minutes. I asked if he had found places to shop and if he’d met any people in the area yet. Then Lou got real quiet. He said: “Lemme ask ya som’in.”

He said, “Explain som’in to me…like when you’re walking around and ya pass someone on the sidewalk…”

“Yeah,” I said

He continued, “and they say, ‘hello...” Lou looked me in the face and asked, in his classic New York accent: “What’s that about?”

My brother-in-law was confused as to why people he’d never met would show him basic kindness. I told him I had also noticed this strange cultural trait. But I told him he needn’t worry.

“Why’s that?” He asked.

“Because I told your neighbors that you’re in the witness protection program.”

That’s what makes Grand Rapids so special. It’s the kind of place where people can blend in and get down to business. Which also tells us something profound about free enterprise.

New York City, like a lot of places in America, is dynamic, intense, and energetic. It’s the kind of place where anyone can do anything—where you can start with one dollar and somehow turn it into a million. From an early age, we were told that striking it rich was the American Dream. That life is all about making a buck and making it big.

But in Grand Rapids, the American Dream is so much deeper, richer and, I think, more authentic. It’s not just about making money. It’s not just about climbing the ladder. Don’t get me wrong: Plenty of that goes on here. It’s human nature to want to excel and improve your life. But in Grand Rapids, there’s a more holistic purpose and just as much focus on improving the lives of others in ways more than materially. There’s a fundamental recognition that the two things are connected—that I do best when I help you do better.

That’s why people tend to be kind out here. We don’t just have a strong economy, like New York. We have something equally, if not more important: a strong culture which many parts of New York once had, but I’m afraid is fading. The two go hand-in-hand, and in fact, they support and strengthen each other. The essence of free enterprise is that we need to make money and be moral. It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. And the places that get this right—like Grand Rapids—are nowadays growing faster and doing better than the places that have forgotten that culture is key to a life well lived.

We need to remember this truth in America today.

In so many places, people are retreating inward. More and more parts of the country are looking like New York City, where people don’t look out for each other or show them kindness or respect, and even prey on one another. But if we’re going to build a future defined by optimism and opportunity for all, we need to look outward once again.

We need to remember that pursuing the good of other people is how we can achieve the greatest things ourselves.

The simplest place to start is just by saying hello to someone you pass in the street or in the grocery store. My brother-in-law asked: What’s that all about? The answer: It’s about everything that matters to our country’s future—and it’s a call-to-action for each and every one of us.

Fr. Robert Sirico is a Catholic priest and cofounder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids.