The Next Chapters of Capitalism Start with Us by Michael P. Davidson

Michael’s Daughter Lemonade Stand

When my daughter was about seven or eight, she said something that made me smile. “I like that your job is to help people,” she told me. She was referring to my nonprofit work. I thanked her, then asked a simple question: “Do you think a tire shop helps people?” We’d just driven past one. She paused and said yes. I asked again as we passed a dry cleaner. Then a restaurant. Then her own lemonade stand, where she also sells crafts and cookies. With each question, her answer became more confident.

She smiled when I said, “That’s capitalism. Capitalism is when companies and individuals freely create and provide services and products.”

A friend riding with us - a seasoned entrepreneur - looked at me and said, “I’ve never thought about it that way.” He’s built and sold businesses, raised capital, and employed hundreds. But he admitted that somewhere along the way, the image of capitalism in his mind had become warped. “I guess I think of it more like Wall Street… Gordon Gekko… ‘Greed is good.’ Or that Willie Loman grind from Death of a Salesman.”

Thank you, Karl Marx... and Hollywood.

The truth is, how we understand capitalism has fallen badly out of sync with what it is and how it works. Today, more than half of Gen Z holds a negative view of capitalism. Nearly a third say they prefer socialism. Quiet quitting, “bare minimum Mondays,” and anti-work trends are on the rise. It’s not because people hate freedom, it’s because they don’t know how capitalism relates to it. Or how to connect their ambition to something meaningful.

And that’s not their fault. Too many of capitalism’s greatest participants and beneficiaries have forgotten or don’t know how to articulate its value - or even feel they have permission to do so.

Not long ago, I advised a woman who had sold her business for hundreds of millions of dollars. She’d worked tirelessly for years, building trust with customers, taking on enormous risk, creating real value. She said that the more successful she became, the more resentment she felt from those around her. “I never thought of what I was doing as part of some bigger idea,” she told me. “I just worked hard. I didn’t know I was supposed to be defending capitalism.”

That moment was telling. Because while capitalism is built on markets, its survival depends on culture. And culture is shaped by people, especially entrepreneurs. Not by what they write in think pieces, but by how they build, how they lead, and how they treat others.

If we want to restore the trust and promise of free enterprise, we need more people who embody it and who understand that to be a businessperson is to be a steward of a moral system.

Adam Smith, the father of free market economics, wrote only two books: The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He believed that commerce, done right, cultivated empathy and mutual respect. Voluntary exchange only works when people trust each other and that trust comes from character, not just contracts.

A pic of some of the group at the last command post of the Japanese commander on peleliu.

That’s where the opportunity lies. Every day, in how you manage your team, talk to customers, and make decisions, you’re modeling capitalism to someone. It might be your kids. It might be your employees. It might be a future entrepreneur watching closely.

Peggy Noonan once wrote, “If your children understand business in America as modeled by you—as honorable men and women engaged in an honorable pursuit—then they will have respect for the institution of business.” We don’t need everyone to become a think tank scholar. We just need people to see capitalism as it truly is: a system that works when people take responsibility, honor their commitments, and create value for others. It’s a system that appeals to and depends upon the best of each of us, the makings of a meaningful life.

That’s where your role becomes irreplaceable. We need more Earl Dunckels—quiet business leaders who saw enough in a young Ronald Reagan to put him on tour for GE and turn him into a communicator of the American ideal. I can’t imagine a Fortune 50 company launching a free enterprise tour today. But I can imagine entrepreneurs like you modeling it in how you hire, price, lead, and give.

We’ve spent the past several decades confusing capitalism with stock tickers, hedge fund billionaires, and Silicon Valley messiahs. No wonder the next generation is disillusioned. But capitalism isn’t about celebrity or excess. It’s about flourishing, serving others with integrity and daring to dream something into existence through your own effort.

The ideas of liberty must be made tangible. We create programs that bring values and solutions to life through experience. And that starts close to home—with your own business, family, and legacy – your own example.

The next time someone asks you what you do, don’t just say, “I run XYZ business.” Say: “I help people. I create value. I solve problems.” Say: “I’m a capitalist in the truest sense—a citizen who takes responsibility for making things better and builds trust through action.”

Because capitalism isn’t defended with press releases or politicians. It’s defended, and defined, by your example. And it’s sustained not by policy alone, but by people—people like you—who make liberty look trustworthy again.