Have You Witnessed any Miracles Lately? Keep Watching. They May be Endangered.

I have witnessed a miracle. It unfolded before my eyes during the past two years. No doubt you've seen one or more as well. Don't miss them. Indeed, appreciate them. So, what miracle have I seen?

I've watched as five jobs were created out of thin air by a newly created business. It's an amazing sight and it demonstrates the greatness of America. If not before, I now realize why millions of people all over the world would jump at the chance to live in the U.S. and pursue their dreams.

Dreams--miracles--happen here.

Fred Smith is one person who pursued such a dream. He created a business that became a major corporation. He founded FedEx in the early 1970s. Today FedEx has some 290,000 employees, or team members. The company operates globally and partners with the Red Cross in disaster relief. The very first FedEx aircraft (shown below) now sits on display in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It is fitting testimony to the company's tremendous success and the American story.

During this presidential election there has been much talk about increasing taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. But one key thing has largely been overlooked or at least under appreciated. It is how wealth gets created.

Wealth, whether money in the bank or stock market, or in the form of wages, is largely generated by the miracles of innovation and inventions. They are essential elements to our economic well-being. But like air and water, they can be taken for granted.

Mr. Smith spoke about the sources of wealth in a recent Wall Street Journal interview with Stephen Moore. Wealth doesn't come from the government he asserts. It comes "'...from invention and entrepreneurship and innovation. And our [government] policies promote a legal and regulatory system which impedes our ability to grow entrepreneurship.'"

He also feels that government unnecessarily limits our ability to lead globally.

"'Many of our current policies are not conducive to continued [global] economic leadership," he says. "'We restrict immigration when we have thousands of highly educated people who want to come to the United States, and some of our greatest corporations [are] crying out that we don't have the scientific talent that we need to develop the next generation of innovators and inventions.'"

Mr. Smith would like to see fewer restrictions on such immigration. He would like corporate tax rates lowered to make us more competitive. At 38% our top tax rate is among the highest. In places like Germany, in contrast, the top rate is only 25%. And he'd like to make it possible for corporations to expense more rapidly their capital investments. That includes equipment they use (like airplanes) to provide services or manufacture products.

Large corporations are not the only sources of innovation, new inventions and new jobs. Small businesses do this often in greater ways. The miracle I alluded to above was due to a small business that grew from zero to five people. In fact, most new jobs are created by small businesses. They have generated 60-80% of net new jobs annually over the past decade. They employ about half of all private sector employees.

It's important that as voters we recognize these facts. We face a tough issue right now that Mr. Smith finds alarming.

"'We're now at a point,'" he said, "'where a very large part of the population pays no federal income tax at all. When you have a majority of the population that realizes that you can transfer money from the productive to themselves, that's one of the great questions of the future of civilization, as far as I'm concerned.'"

When the majority of voters see government as a source of wealth, or as a conduit to wealth to be redistributed, one has to wonder: Who will create the new miracles?