When Free to Choose is the signature publication of Northwood University. It is dedicated to promoting the global, diverse and multi-cultural nature of enterprise. Bringing lessons of the American free enterprise society directly to your inbox or mailbox, When Free to Choose features informative essays about timely issues and events, and thought-provoking point-counterpoint essays written by industry experts, faculty, scholars and researchers.
If you haven’t watched Project Hail Mary, please do, and be aware: spoilers ahead. This movie is not only a masterpiece of filmmaking, but it also delivers a powerful life lesson, one that goes beyond the screen and speaks to something very deep and fundamental about human relationships. The story does not present us with...
A Student View by Alaina C. Taube, Northwood University Artificial intelligence is often misunderstood, especially in academic settings. Many people immediately associate AI with cheating, as if using it automatically replaces thinking rather than enhancing it. But this view misses the bigger picture. AI is not a shortcut around learning; it’s a tool that, when...
The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is a good time to remind ourselves that a revolution is not one thing, but many things. In the late 18th century, Americans underwent an ideological, political, cultural, and economic revolution that reshaped their present lives and their nation’s future. In this way, the Declaration of Independence...
What was the American Revolution? The Declaration of Independence established it as a new way of thinking about liberty and government. But the Revolution also involved a War for Independence that shaped the way those Americans thought about themselves and their former rulers. Just as the ideas of the founders helped create the United States,...
ChatGPT marked the third anniversary of its public launch last autumn. Its extraordinary success stands as a potent reminder — particularly for policymakers — of how quickly innovation can reorder entire industries. Within five days of ChatGPT’s release, one million people had signed up for it. Two months later, it had 100 million users. Today,...
In a world of constant change, the enduring principles of The Northwood Idea remain steadfast. Personal freedom, individual responsibility and the rule of law are not relics of another era — they are the permanent foundations of a free and flourishing society. It is therefore fitting to revisit the voices and lessons that have most...
A Student View by Oliver Jarvis, Lilly Lauzon, A. Noel Tokarev, and Kristin Tokarev When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, America was in trouble. Prices were rising by double digits on an annual basis. Interest rates? Nearly 20%. Unemployment? Persistently high. The Keynesian economists from the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter years had given...
After World War II, Germany was in ruins. Cities leveled, infrastructure destroyed, tens of millions killed or severely injured, morale shattered… The Nazi regime had left behind not only devastation, but a command-and-control economy riddled with inflation and rationing. Police forces were gutted by the Allied regime. Theft and black markets became a way of...
Deirdre McCloskey has reshaped the study of economic history by insisting that ideas, not institutions or capital, made us rich. This prolific author is one of the rare figures in modern academia whose work crosses disciplines and defies labels. Drawn as a teenager to utopian and revolutionary theories, McCloskey grew up to realize that noble...
Just 50 years ago, China was one of the poorest countries on Earth. Many of its people lived in mud-brick homes. Most were undernourished. Everyone was trapped in a rigid communist system that crushed initiative. Today, it is the world’s second-largest economy by some measures, home to gleaming megacities and the largest middle class by...
Thomas Jefferson warned us that “the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” The growth of government in the past century has certainly vindicated his assessment. There are multiple explanations for this, but one of the most relevant today is the tendency of emergencies, both real and imagined,...
We hear a lot these days about “equity,” “safe spaces,” and “lived experiences.” But here’s a radical idea: maybe what America really needs is more Northwood University graduates. That was the message from Dr. Kent MacDonald, President of Northwood, during a recent Freedom Seminar lecture. He didn’t talk about victimhood or virtue-signaling. He talked about...
Artificial intelligence is here. It is learning fast, and it is already changing the ways we live our lives. For a lot of people, that change causes a lot of uncertainty when it comes to their careers. There is talk that AI is eliminating jobs, but that statement avoids the true impact: Artificial intelligence is...
This Independence Day, America’s Free Enterprise University marked an exciting milestone: Learners who complete The Philosophy of Free Enterprise, Northwood’s complimentary, self-paced online course, can now earn a Certificate of Completion. Launched in 2022, the course now offers 18 engaging lessons featuring easily digestible lectures about timeless free-market concepts, including the importance of limited government,...