We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Martha Njolomole was born in Malawi, one of the poorest nations in Africa, and a country where pretty much all economic activity is controlled by the government. She grew up in a household that had neither running water nor electricity. Nor did her family own any books. Through a combination of talent and extraordinary diligence, Martha won a scholarship to study in the United States. She was stunned by what she found here. This Prager U video, released this morning, tells Martha’s story:

Sometimes the messenger is an important part of the message. At American Experiment, we like to get Martha in front of audiences of young people to explain the virtues of free enterprise and to counter the pro-socialist propaganda that many young Americans take for granted.

I should add that, in addition to being possibly the nicest person I know, Martha is an excellent economist. Basically a math person, she can do multiple factor regression analyses and other mathematical work relevant to her discipline. In addition to commenting on economic issues and the news of the day at American Experiment’s web site, testifying before various committees, etc., she has authored several major papers. This one explains how excessive regulation has contributed to an affordability crisis in child care in Minnesota. Her bombshell report on welfare spending in Minnesota found that our state’s many means-tested programs–it took an enormous amount of effort just to catalog and quantify all of them–spend an average of $34,379 per person living below the federal poverty level. Things have gotten worse since then, and Martha is working on a new report that will update the numbers and also bring to bear more advanced statistical techniques.

Martha has come a long way from the days when she carried water in buckets on her head, and scrounged for thrown-away scraps of newspaper on which she could practice reading. That distance is, really, the distance between socialism and free enterprise. No one is better qualified than Martha to explain that to America’s young people.