Bet on the builders to power America’s next 250 years

As Americans celebrate our great nation’s independence, let’s reaffirm the fundamental values that built this republic into the most prosperous economy in history: freedom and free enterprise, liberty and limited government, the rule of law and private property, free-market competition and individual incentives.

And at their core, perhaps the most important sentence in all of history: “We are endowed by our creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Plenty of nations endure, but what sets American exceptionalism apart has been a single instinct: to build.

Americans invent, take risks and innovate — and we do it because it’s who we are.

America recognizes and rewards that entrepreneurial spirit.

We’ve never been afraid to build something new — even if it displaces what came before — because the fruits of risk carry the whole country forward.

In America we reward, not punish, success.

As a result, throughout our history our economy has grown at an annual rate of 3.5%. 

No other nation on Earth can boast such growth and ever-expanding prosperity. 

Once again, freedom and free enterprise win. 

Take Henry Ford: Some worried that his cars would put the buggy makers out of business, and they did.

But that created opportunity — new companies, new innovations, greater prosperity for all.

The internet began as a tool for a handful of research labs; now it underpins the global economy.

Switchboard operators, video-rental stores, newspaper classifieds are all gone.

In their place: e-commerce, the app economy, entire categories of work that didn’t exist before — and now employ millions.

That’s what our national and economic expansion has always looked like.

When Lewis and Clark set out, no one could have priced what lay to the west; the value of a continent was unimaginable from its edge.

We stand at the edge of another new frontier now.

In America’s next 250 years, the pattern will repeat in the realms of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space and a dozen other frontiers we can’t yet name.

Embarking on these expeditions will bring uncertainty, but the payoff can’t be calculated in advance.

The supercycle has just begun, and the results are already staggering.

AI has mapped the structure of nearly all 200 million known proteins and is poised to discover new life-saving medicines.

Reusable rockets the size of skyscrapers are now landing themselves back on launch pads.

The American instinct to build remains stronger than ever.

None of this has to leave humans behind.

AI will take over some tasks outright, as in every revolution before this one — but it will also work alongside us, complementing the work we’ve spent time mastering.

If we get this right, AI will create a more productive economy that will continue raising our standard of living.

There’s no ceiling on what people desire: to be healthier, to build, to reach further — so there’s no ceiling on the work worth doing.

And work itself isn’t just a paycheck; it is dignity and purpose that can’t be replaced by government dependency.

Work is godly, and we are endowed by our Creator — not by authoritarian big-government socialists.

That’s why America’s productivity, mobility and dynamism will continue to be our great sources of national advantage.

If the demand is endless and the frontier has no edge, someone must lead the way.

That leader must be America.

A nation can only defend its freedoms abroad if it’s strong enough at home — and strength comes from growth, from building and from people still willing to take risks.

Nations get into trouble when they grow weak, and weakness almost always begins with economic stagnation.

We’re not the only ones racing toward that frontier: China, too, is pushing at the edge of every one of these technologies.

The centuries ahead will either be shaped by a country founded on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — or by a regime that imposes surveillance, censorship and obedience.

We are racing not simply for economic advantage, but for the values the future will be built on.

The American advantage comes from the private sector, from people willing to put it all on the line for something that might fail.

Government doesn’t need to direct them: It needs to trust them, to clear the obstacles out of their way — and to let them reap the rewards for making their fellow Americans better off. 

Americans have never doubted our abilities.

The only question has been how to use them — and the answer, every time, has been to build.

That instinct is in our blood, and the work for the next 250 years is to make sure we don’t forget it.

Larry Kudlow is the chairman of the America First Policy Institute, where Stephen Moore is a senior fellow for American Prosperity.