Any person who has spent any time with young children will tell you that kids love to play house. In this game, there is always a mommy, a daddy and a baby. The “parents” always have a nice car they drive to an extravagant career — maybe as an astronaut or the president — and of course, they have a beautiful house.

Even as preschoolers, these children are striving to reach the American dream regardless of their class, race or background. A successful career, a lavish house, a healthy family, equal opportunities: probably the same things most students at universities across the country hope to achieve. This dream is only achievable, however, in a capitalist, free-market economy.

Bill Clinton once said, “The American dream that we were all raised on is a simple but powerful one: If you work hard and play by the rules you should be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you.” Capitalism provides for equal opportunity of achievement and is the only system that can work.

The truth of the matter is all other economic systems lack competition. Without competition, the desire for success is lost in the theory that someone else will take care of everything. Why strive when there is no benefit to trying? If a professor agreed to give everyone the same grade based on the class average, why would the A students try when they are only going to receive a B?

Working hard, following the rules, making the best of each situation and believing in more is what capitalism is about. Some may argue capitalism is all about the companies or Wall Street. But that is not entirely true. It’s about a wealth of opportunities waiting to be taken advantage of by whomever believes they can achieve.

Capitalism is not a taboo theory. It is a principle largely based on greed, but that is the point. It is a human instinct to want more. The more we have, the more secure we feel. Right or wrong, if humans weren’t greedy, we would not desire to have every product Apple designs, boastful careers or the desire to attain anything at all. We would simply exist, and from the beginning of time that was never enough. We always want more.

This is all said at the risk of coming off as a self-absorbed narcissist, but that is not my intention. This is said to give clear understanding of how to achieve everything that anyone has ever dreamed about since the conception of the Declaration of Independence when Thomas Jefferson wrote about the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These words, possibly the most well known in the Declaration, were the birth of the American dream. “That all men were created equal” proves to us that we all can achieve what we desire to the best of our abilities.

To say that social welfare is what is needed to achieve this dream shows a lack of self-respect and self-confidence. People should not need to rely on government to achieve their dreams. They should have enough respect for their own selves to know they are capable and worthy of what they want most in the world and know how to get it.

Now it is time to reach back into our memories and pull out those old forgotten dreams of being astronauts and presidents and seek to fulfill them with hard work and determination. We should all go back to the days when we wanted it all and knew we would get it. Waiting around for someone else to snatch up our dreams, the dreams that have belonged to us since we were three, is unacceptable and intolerable. Those dreams belong to us and we will make them happen. We were born in the land of opportunity, and it is time we start taking advantage of it.