Who pushes society forward the most? Who is it that creates technology and valuable goods and services for the masses of people? Who is it that enhances society’s knowledge and disrupts the antiquated economic and political orders? The answer: Entrepreneurs.
The Anti-Entrepreneurial Mentality
Entrepreneurs all throughout history have been disliked, insulted, and looked down upon, and it hasn’t been by any one group, it’s been many types of groups that have hated entrepreneurs. The reason for this attitude in today’s society in the US is because entrepreneurs represent individualism and freedom. They are agents of social and economic change and progress. They are living examples that each individual can have enormous impact on society, that we each can embody the change we wish to see.
Governments and corporate oppressors do not want people believing that they can be the next individual to spark massive social or economic change. Entrepreneurs are people who do not seek permission, rather they rule themselves. It is easy to see how governments would be fearful of everyone in society adopting this mentality, because then they’d be powerless.
The reason entrepreneurs have been stifled and put down throughout history is because entrepreneurs are always in combat with the existing status quo, simply by necessity. Entrepreneurs put people out of work when they find better ways of doing things with machines and technology. Entrepreneurs raise the standard of living for the poorest, which angers the wealthy political classes and political royalty. Entrepreneurs create technology that make it more difficult for governments to control people. And entrepreneurs breathe inspiration and progress into society.
The Underappreciated Hero
The entrepreneur is arguably the most important person in society, yet hardly receives any love. If you compare the way the mainstream media views government versus entrepreneurs, you’ll see that government is viewed as always well-meaning, while entrepreneurs are portrayed as greedy exploiters.
The entrepreneurs are the ones who take massive risks and who take action in the face of uncertainty. They are agents of change who attempt to make calculated guesses about what the market and society is demanding. Regardless if they guess right or wrong, both they and society learn and improve. If they guess right, we learn what is in demand; if they guess wrong, we learn what not to do.
It is thanks to entrepreneurs that we have so many valuable goods and services available to the masses nowadays. Less than 30 years ago only wealthy people could afford cell phones, while today the majority of people in American society own a cell phone with more computing power than the computers that sent the first astronauts into space. That’s what entrepreneurs and markets do, they take goods that only the wealthy have access to and then make them available to everyday ordinary people.
It is thanks to entrepreneurs that we have further researched and developed advancements in health and medicine that have tremendously increased the span of our lives. It is thanks to entrepreneurs that we can avoid inefficient government monopolies and instead choose far superior options, such as Uber versus taxi cartels, Amazon versus USPS, or Bitcoin versus the US dollar.
Entrepreneurs are who we should build statues of and who we should remember and admire, not the politicians who try to take all the credit.