Working in Europe is great for someone like me. I' am a true believer in the free enterprise system. There are people who criticize liberal capitalism because of its instances of social and economic injustice... I agree. There are flaws of capitalism that man hasn't been able to find a solution for yet, but then there's this other part of capitalism that makes it all worthwhile. To me, free enterprise means having the freedom to cempete. Two things usually happen when there's competition in the market: 1- prices come down 2- quality goes up. But, free enterprise isn't easy... it requires lots of good thinking and much hard work.

In our search for suppliers of ingredients that go into our cookies, we've found many, tested most, and selected a few companies. We have very simple criteria: 1- high quality bio products 2- suitable technical characteristics. Price also plays a role in our decision making, but not as big as the other two. Some of these companies are huge... for example, the bio cane sugar comes from a big supplier, but some materials come from 3-4 person companies.

This morning, we received a sample from one of the smaller companies in southern Germany. Their product is great, it's sized perfectly, it's correctly dried, it smells and tastes fresh, it's good. This is just a small company competing in a big world; and it's going on... producing... selling... participating in the economy... providing income for a few families. This example made me think again of the benefits of free enterprise. Nobody's too small or too big to specialize in, make, and sell something very good at reasonable prices... this is the key. Many many participants of all sizes come together to shape large efficient economies. By the way, China surpassed Germany in exports for the first time in history last year. Does this mean the communists are becoming better capitalists than the traditional free market countries?