HAIL THE ENTREPRENEURS
Contrary to the propaganda, money is a sign and seal of success, not a motivating factor
BY LEW ROCKWELL

Lew Rockwell is a paleolibertarian political commentator and economist in the United States. Rockwell is the founder and President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama and Vice President of the Center for Libertarian Studies. Other stories by Lew Rockwell

We live in times of relentless innovation. It's true that we can be overwhelmed, but would we have it any other way? Unfortunately, some would. They oppose the free-market process that makes improvement possible. They seize on some innovation that they don't like, and instead of declining to buy, seek to deny that opportunity to others by passing laws.

Such people seem to be everywhere these days. The environmentalist movement is replete with them; indeed, their ideology pretty much defines the ideological left. They preach that we buy too much, sell too much and compete too much, while calling on the government to stop us.

The mistake is in thinking that economic progress is driven by some strange force outside our control. In fact, material progress represents the social ratification of the ideas and actions of dreamers in a capitalistic marketplace, people seeking to bring us better ways of living and using peaceful means to do so.

Consider what it would mean to put a stop to the innovative society. It would mean the end of creative thought as applied to our economic lives. Above all, it would mean eliminating an important aspect of what makes us human, namely the entrepreneurial drive. Now, there is a sense in which every human is an entrepreneur, from the time we first seek to make choices and pursue goals. The future is always uncertain, so all human action that is undertaken with purpose is speculative action.

There is a more narrow and more heroic sense in which we use the term entrepreneur, however. It refers to those who make speculative judgments in a capitalistic economy, risking their own resources to bring us goods, services and techniques that we have never known before. It is the entrepreneur's intuition and imagination that make economic progress possible.

Capitalistic entrepreneurs are blessed with a special power of discernment that enables them to make prescient judgments concerning the future, to understand that a different and better use of scarce resources would reduce waste and serve consumers better. They see what others do not see, that a particular product or service would improve our lives but does not yet exist.

Entrepreneurs are also blessed with a special courage to risk their own resources. And contrary to the propaganda, money is for them not so much a motivating force as a sign and seal of their success. It is a ratifying symbol of a job well done. In the market economy, a job well done means serving the public. Profits, as Mises emphasized, accrue to individuals who serve others through enormous personal sacrifice.

Unlike capitalism, hardly anyone today is prepared to argue against philanthropy. We all understand that it is crucial to creating a better world. But how often do we think of the source of the funds? They come from the store of wealth generated by capitalism, and that wealth would not exist without entrepreneurship.

Philanthropy and entrepreneurship, then, do not stem from opposite impulses, as is commonly thought. They originate from the same source: the intellectual and even spiritual commitment to serve others and make a difference in the world for the good. 

As for us non-entrepreneurs, we can admire and support the people who have this special gift and the willingness to do something with it, as they make our lives better in so many seen and unseen ways. We can also learn about economics, and their unique role in the market, and do our best to take down the barriers placed in their way by greedy and envious politicians.

But these days, what are kids taught in school about heroes? Who are they told is responsible for making the world a better place to live? Almost always, politicians are heralded, people whose work mostly consists in erecting barriers to human progress, and otherwise shuffling around private wealth by force.

Is it any wonder, then, that the anti-capitalists have the ideological upper hand? People have been led to believe that shutting down entrepreneurship and the marketplace will improve the world. Actually, that way lies barbarism, and a system unfit for human beings. LW