This is a great day to reflect on America. Despite real problems, we live in the world’s most successful large-scale social experiment. We lucky citizens have won life’s lottery. Regardless of ethnicity, if a wise person behind a veil of ignorance could choose where to be born, America would be her best bet.

We have a great deal to cherish, little of which is of our doing. We inherited marvelous natural features. Our duty is to treat them with care. Today we celebrate these natural blessings and much more. Let’s consider the institutions that promote liberty and prosperity, policies that erode these values, and how to best promote environmental stewardship.

The American Constitution fostered a productive, progressive society unburdened by an official, governmentally sanctioned religion. While some believe our Founders were divinely inspired, there is no test for this claim. However, were I to attribute one secular document with a divine source, it would be the Constitution with our Bill of Rights. Somehow, our Founders got design right.

Their work exemplified Enlightenment thinking and displayed heavy emphasis on reason and science. Our Founders well understood the potential for plunder and worked to minimize it. Their task was to create institutions strong enough to protect citizens in their person and property, while constraining politicians and special interests from exploiting and controlling others.

While perfection eluded our Founders due to the compromises necessary for ratification (consider neglect of women, slaves, and Indians), it was a marvelous beginning. They limited government’s ability to transfer wealth and opportunities; otherwise, as is Europe, benefits would flow to the powerful and well connected. Here, individuals had incentives to improve their lot by being productive rather than predatory. Americans’ surest path to self-improvement came from moving human and natural resources to ever-higher values. As a result of our focus on productivity not plunder, we became rich beyond belief.

Today, our challenge is not wealth creation, but rather living well, ethically, and with sensitivity to others and our environment. This is a great accomplishment, one really quite amazing—and under appreciated.

Even as we celebrate the Founders’ success, we should be sensitive to flaws. Most of our public policy problems result from two sources: deviations from the Founders’ design and failure to understand the sources of political pathologies. Today’s politicians actively compete for booty and brag about bringing taxpayers’ funds to their constituencies. Congressional races demonstrate such ethical bottom feeding.

To compete for votes, politicians deeply discount future costs and ignore the opportunities foregone by others when promoting their special interests. As a result, we are burdened with wasteful earmarks (many of which are environmentally destructive), entitlements that cannot be sustained, huge subsidies (e.g., ethanol) to those who need them least, and gross inefficiencies.

None of this surprises political economists; it is the default toward which democracies decline when discipline is lost and opportunism becomes the norm. Unless people become angels, that’s the way the world will work. Ultimately, of course, reality checks government. Things that can’t go on don’t.

Fortunately, one arena where the Founders’ vision has remained basically intact involves the separation of church and state. For historical reasons, the Enlightenment discounted religion, and the Founders recognized state sanctioned religion as a source of great misery. Yet Americans, then and now, maintain great attachment to various religious expressions. Europeans marvel at our expressions of faith—while their state supported churches are museum pieces empty of worshipers.

Many of America’s religious leaders are alerting their congregations to the moral imperative of environmental stewardship. This naturally complements Green perspectives on governmental control over life choices. (Consider proposed legislation to regulate light bulbs, showerheads, toilets, and automobile mileage, well intended but naïve measures.) Fitting these forces into our tradition of individual liberty, autonomy, and innovation is a serious challenge.

FREE’s new program shares political economy perspectives on environmental stewardship with religious leaders. The first conference included Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Congregationalists, Evangelicals, Jews, Lutherans, and Mormons among others. Our goal is to show religious leaders how to foster harmony among responsible liberty, modest prosperity, and environmental quality, while focusing on global warming.

This is part of our effort to sustain the vision that makes America so successful. Join us in celebrating a happy Independence Day.