Death of the Entrepreneur

I am in New Hampshire looking at opportunities and coming up I drove past Manchester where the current president spent time making another speech.

As reported by the Union Leader he said:

...a lot of the folks who have been down in New York and all across the country, in the Occupy movement, there is a profound sense of frustration -- (applause) -- there is a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American Dream -- which is if you work hard, if you stick to it, that you can make it -- feels like that's slipping away. And it's not the way things are supposed to be. Not here. Not in America. (Applause.)

This is a place where your hard work and your responsibility is supposed to pay off. It's supposed to be a big, compassionate country where everybody who works hard should have a chance to get ahead -– not just the person who owns the factory, but the men and women who work on the factory floor. 

First, yes the applause was written into the speech. Second look at what is said in the last paragraph. The entrepreneur invented the product, spent their money, took substantial risks, sold the idea, raised capital, and lived at the precipice until the company was a success. The employees got a job, they show up, get paid for what they do, and go home. No risks, and the rewards are what they are paid.

Getting "ahead" is a matter not just of working hard, it is having a good idea, then implementing it, taking risks that are often extreme and then being a bit lucky. Clearly the current president seems clueless as to what an entrepreneur is. There is not equality between a worker and the entrepreneur. Let the worker leave their job, "burn the boats" and set out to create a new company on their own. Then they have the option of a substantial reward. They have no right to be compensated because they work hard, they are compensated, it is a paycheck, and that is all they deserve, at least until they do the same as the factory owner.

That single paragraph establishes the difference between the United States and the old Soviet Union. The American Dream is that you have the opportunity to do it on your own, to create wealth, to create value. You may work very hard digging ditches but your pay may be very little. In a factory you may work very hard but the owner is always thinking of how to replace you with a machine. Machines do not whine, machines have no sense of entitlement, machines do what they were built to do.

Just working hard was never the recipe for success. Working smart is better, but still not there. Taking risks, educated risks, are getting to the point. Compassion is a good emotion, it may be a religious one but it is not an essential part of a capitalist democracy. We do not have to be Scrooge types, we can be generous and helpful, but by choice not by law. There is no moral value to be obliged to be compassionate.