This adds onto my post here on Capitalism in talking about Entrepreneurship:
The ultimate source of our prosperity is a set of institutions and cultural attitudes (along with what Deirdre McCloskey calls “habits of the lip” that give dignity to the bourgeoisie) that encourage innovative commercial and industrial activities. The bicycle was improved not by “technological progress,” but by relatively free and innovative entrepreneurial markets that created much of the capacity for technological progress and that directed and prompted countless innovators and entrepreneurs along the way to do their thing and to share the fruits of their productive activities with consumers.
Go to the link and read the vignette of how the bicycle went from beyond the reach of the common man to a child’s toy. The description above is the key – and what Obama and Elizabeth “You didn’t build that” Warren get wrong. Innovation comes from the mind of the inventors themselves and not from “what Government does”. They see those “institutions” as being completely Government based and take far too much credit for anything that anyone else does. It is the attitude of “we are all collectivists” run amok. Then they believe that without the ‘guiding hand’ of government, nothing else can happen. Instead of realizing that a light hand is required, they continue to weight that hand of Government, not able to (or unwilling to admit) that they are driving Government activity to lessen that which they see – and end up destroying it instead. By putting Government in charge, they crowd out the very cultural (“I built this”, “I can do this”, “I will benefit from this”) and institutional (“we are willing to lend”) attitudes needed for spinoffs to thrive.
We see it today where the number of startups (a typical American activity) has fallen as the institutions and attitudes are slowly constricting the necessary environment. And like Reagan said “Government is not the answer, it is….”. Not for nothing but Progressives need to learn that Government HAS to stay out of certain areas for things to succeed.
After all, Solyndra worked out so well, eh?
