How Society Creates Entrepreneurs

How does the world get rich? With the entrepreneurial bourgeois

We Are Mind-Blowingly Rich

• Extreme poverty is at the lowest rate ever recorded
  • People living on less than $2/day worldwide* * CPI-adjusted
    • 1800: 85%
    • 1966: 50%
    • 2017: 9%
• Most of the world population is among the middle class
  • In 2019, 79% of people were middle income earners
    • Up from 67% in 1960
• The U.S. is a powerful and wealthy country
  • Total household net worth: $98 trillion
  • Average individual net worth: $68,828
  • From 2010-2018, poverty decline by 23%
  • Just 0.17% of Americans are homeless
• Our standard of living has increased substantially
  • Average household owns 1.88 cars
  • 68% of Americans own real estate
  • Americans eat out nearly 4X a week
  • 24-25 year olds budget $95 a week to eating out
• Our richness was built on conditions for a flourishing economy
  • Secure property rights
  • Open and competitive markets
  • Long-lasting political structure
  • Limited government
  • Consistent legal system
• All maintained through the egalitarian Bourgeois Deal: Anyone who wishes to innovate may innovate

But richness didn’t come from material causes

Who Are The Bourgeois?

• The bourgeois are the middle class
  • A social group between the rich and the poor
  • Historically included
    • Shopkeepers
    • Merchants
    • Innovators
  • Bourgeois were once considered
    • Morally suspect
    • Undignified
    • Lacking in honor
• Where did the bourgeois come from?
  • The Aristocratic Deal: “Do what I say and I’ll let you work”
    • Act I: Do as I say, pay your taxes, honor me; or be jailed
    • Act II: You cannot seek protection from another aristocrat
    • Act III: Kill others and your own for my glory
  • The Bourgeois Deal: “Leave me alone, and I’ll make you rich”
    • Act I: I innovate and creatively destroy
    • Act II: I attract competition and thereby lower profits
    • Act III: Everyone will be better off by my venture
  • Income rose 900% from $3 per day
• How did we change from the Aristocratic to the Bourgeois Deal?
  • The 5 Rs
    • Revolution: The rise of manufacturing created a growing middle class
    • Revolt: Overthrew the aristocracy in England, France, and the U.S.
    • Reading: Spread new ideas as presses became less censored
    • Reformation: Free thought led to the protestant reformation
    • Revaluation: Unlimited innovation built on freedom to create
  • The Bourgeois Deal brought a larger, better connected, and more prosperous population

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” — Adam Smith, political economist and philosopher

Giving Entrepreneurs Free Reign Will Keep Us Rich

• The Great Enrichment DID NOT come from

• • • • Competition
      • Science
      • Property rights
      • Modern medicine
      • Consumerism
      • Strong work ethic
      • Free trade
      • Natural resources
      • Aristocratic gestures
    • These things are nice to have, but cannot explain:
      • Up to 9,900% increase in standard of living
      • Higher income levels
      • Greater displays of virtue

• The Economy Is A Conversation

• • • Mutual sympathy of sentiments (shared values)
    • Appeal not to humanity, but self interest
    • The two invisible hands:
      • Social hand
      • Self interest hand
  • We got rich because the conversation changed
    • Changes in the way we think
    • Changes in the way we talk
    • Changes in world income

Today, everyone is a merchant — Women, people of color, and diverse groups are empowered to create

• • The West grew rich because of historical accidents that 
    • Created a competitive republic of ideas
    • Distributed through the free press
    • Helped people flee the aristocracy

• The Free Market Fuels The World

• • In government-controlled markets
    • States create monopolies
    • Institutions limit market extent
    • Markets limit division of labor
    • Regulations choke innovation
  • Free markets by themselves are not enough, we need
    • Liberty, dignity, and equality
    • A balanced approach
    • Virtues of faith, hope, love, & courage
    • Values of justice, temperance, & prudence
• The world is better because the Bourgeois deal
  • Recognizes our ability and right to self-author
  • Does not ask for permission from the elites
  • Extends liberty and dignity for everyone (all races & colors)
  • Empowers women and minority groups to innovate 
• If we keep our ethical wits, we can all be enriched

Leave me alone and I’ll make you rich

Further Reading:

• Free Online Colleges and College Courses
• Nationally Accredited Online Colleges
• Trade School Careers Resource
• Tuition Free Colleges
• Trade Jobs

Sources:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?end=1960&locations=XM-XP-XD&start=1960&view=bar

https://www.gapminder.org/topics/extreme-poverty-trend/

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/demographics-and-entrepreneurship-chapter10.pdf 

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/20190606/html/b101h.htm

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2011/demo/wealth/wealth-asset-ownership.html

https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bourgeois

https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-macroeconomics/wealth-of-nations-economic-growth