to this series of programs is being presented to help all of us understand the outer advantages and our american way of life for today's topic let's join the group of young people at the national education program workshop in search the arkansas at the classroom lector and as dr clifton l gayness jr noted young historian in our american adventure series we have frequently noted that the three great proud nation stones of the american way of life our faith in god constitutional government and the private ownership economic system when combined they give us the structure from which has evolved a unique mechanism for human progress prior personal happiness and for economic well being what about this mechanism that we call the american system what makes it work why does it produce such good results for  people vastly better than any other system to answer these questions let us trace the functions of the american economic freedoms right down into the live stream of our workaday live in the list of human freedoms might well have up near the top of the freedom to work at the occupation our calling of one's own choice we have this freedom in america how well does it work well some of you college students are preparing yourselves for careers as teachers you wouldn't want the government our anyone else to force you to take up some other occupation you want to choose your own career all americans have this free choice of occupation we see nothing strange are even unique in this freedom that the people of many other countries think it is an amazing thing under socialism there is an overall central economic plan drawn up and enforced by the government the plan calls for the production of so much of this and that product and assigns so many worker chances are that sooner or later in a socialist country you would be shifted to an occupation our locality which you would not li england's socialist leaders promise that there would be no regimentation are control of the workers and yet soon after socialism took over the english industries the socialists enacted a law which provided government control over everybody's choice of occupation after a time of choice and occupation makes it possible for americans to enjoy their labor which is a factor in our high productivity and our high living standards and our farmer who visited several weeks in russia came home to report that production per worker on the collective farms in russia amounted to approximately one tenth as much as that on american far he also reported that it requires two months labor for a russian worker to earn enough money to buy a suit of clothes a much better suit of clothing can be purchased by an average american worker with less than a week's ernie another american freedom that has an important economic influence is the freedom to dream dreams that may come true only in an atmosphere of freedom can the total brain capacity of an entire nation harnessed to progress some of the most valuable contributions to our progress have been made by average americans who put their brains to work in a country where everyone is free and even encouraged to try out any idea our contraption no matter how crazy it may seem to others it was this stimulating freedom that permitted thomas edison to envision and develop electric light even though electricity had been in the presence of mankind for six thousand years no one had learned how to make an electric light and edison a below average student from an obscure family evolve the idea and succeeded in making it work millions of products have come to the american market in the last half century and behind each new product that has been a free mind dreaming exploring acquiring probing and creating our system inspires challenges one hundred and sixty million people to dream and thus to create to produce and to build closely allied to and complementing the freedom to dream is the freedom to compete and out american system the dreamer does not have a monopoly on producing things anyone can go into business and compete with him since the first automobile was produced in america over fifteen hundred companies have been are going to as to manufacture automobiles most of them failed the best competitors the best producers succeeded competition has kept each auto manufacturer busy trying to outdo the other and attract more car b hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in research and new manufacturing techniques to make today is car far ahead of the earlier models what has happened in the automobile industry has happened also with a whole vast  of products on the american market another vital factor in the american production mechanism is the freedom to advance the freedom of each person to improve his own p most of the present day industrial leaders have come up through the ranks of employees they were ambitious enterprising industrious and free free to work for advancement american competition along with our freedom to advance has developed the finest industrial and business management in the world american management goes through a process of screening by competition incompetent management cannot survive the k competition of our free market one of the most capable the most efficient the most productive can remain at the top this screen of management means better jobs and a more secure future for employees and better products at less cost for the consuming public the final factor in america's great economic progress is the freedom to invest not only is it the privilege of every american to invest his savings as he sees fit but the incentive to invest is very great this is evidenced by the fact that some eighteen million americans own corporations stock the money they invest in industry is used for working for building and expanding plants and for the constant development of industrial to one of the most dramatic differences between an american industrial employee and his european and asian counterpart is to where there is little capital for investment and plants and to use a man's labor is not worth very much this man for instance takes ten days to move ten gallons of kerosene one hundred miles freight cost at ten cents a gallon and american railroad worker face only two hours to move one hundred thousand gallons of kerosene one hundred miles at a freight cost of one cent a gallon the coolie makes ten cents a day the average american railroad worker makes ten to fifteen dollars a day the american railroad worker has the benefit of a twenty thousand dollar investment in  the coolies equipment is worth only ten cents better tools are being produced constantly and all phases of american industry resulting in higher productivity per worker and better wages and an improved products for the consuming public when our grandfathers were boys animals were doing seventy nine percent of the work in american production men can pivoted fifteen percent problem machine power contributed about six percent of the output per worker at that time was about twenty seven cents per hour hours were long and wages were low and production was m today and contrast animals are no longer a production factor except on a few farms men are contributing about five percent in american productivity machines are contributing ninety five percent are more than the output per worker has multiplied many times and wages have kept pace largely through america's tremendous investment and industrial to progress since it takes from fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars in invested capital to create each job in the chemical industry thirty five thousand dollars the petroleum industry and so on throughout our entire industrial system there is an average investment of more than ten thousand dollars per job these five factors combined to make the american economic system the most productive in history giving the american people a far higher standard of living and that enjoyed by any other nation and let us be reminded that the key word in each is freedom freedom to work freedom to dream freedom to compete freedom to advance and freedom to invest in the tos or production this has been the formula for our unparalleled achievements the secret of our great national progress and our individual wellbeing but let us remember that these freedoms are all in one bundle and that if one should be withdrawn actually become inactive then our freedom structure would be weakened and jeopardized all americans should clearly understand how each freedom works in our system and how vital each one is to our economic welfare and our happiness next week we should discuss the functions of profit and america's progress but for now class dismissed political and economic system which is made america great watch for the next presentation of the american adventure