What are the five pillars?
Pillar one: Private Enterprise
The first pillar of the American Enterprise System is private enterprise. This allows individuals to control businesses, not a central planner. This is known as the first pillar because it sets the stage for the other four pillars to erect themselves. Without private enterprise, our economy would resemble something like the Soviet Union in the twentieth century.
Pillar Two: COmpetition
The second pillar of the American Enterprise System is competition. Competition is a very important asset in any system with private enterprise. This encourages businesses to compete in competitive markets to win over the consumers. This usually means innovating technology so you can offer your goods or services at lower prices or differentiating your product to stand out from a rather homogenous market.
Pillar three: Private property
The third pillar of the American Enterprise System is private property. Private enterprise depends on this pillar, without private property, individuals would not be able to erect their own businesses (since they would not own the land). Plus the goal of a FREE enterprise system is minimal government intervention, so the more private ownership of resources, the better.
Pillar four: profit motive
The fourth pillar of the American Enterprise System is profit motive. This goes hand in hand with competition. The reason why the private enterprises compete is for a larger profit, and this incentive to compete is what leads to technological innovation. The device you are using now was probably created as a product of the competition profit motive caused.
Pillar Five: Consumer Sovereignty
The fifth, and final, pillar of the American Enterprise System is consumer sovereignty. This allows consumers to freely choose what good or service they want to buy. This allows individuals to have power in the economy, instead of a central planner. This is one of the most important facets of the system because statistics have shown that the most prosperous nations are the ones with the most economic freedom.