I just love it when I find something that expresses what I’ve long believed to be true but cannot express in a way that satisfies the frustrated essayist\/writer in me.
\nThe new spiel that politicians and social change advocates of the Philippines profess to advocate is entrepreneurship. Bullshit. There is a reason that Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley. There is a reason that no matter what a lot of countries do the game is still played by the valley’s rules. The valley is structured to allow the next yahoo, google, youtube and, facebook.
\nIf you are professing to be more than a snake’s oil salesmen then what are you doing to create the structure that would allow entrepreneurship to result into amazing wealth. Think of the Henry Sy’s , the Lucio Tan’s, the Andrew Tan’s. How do we make things just a little bit easier for the next batch of tycoons? If all you can say is entrepreneurship and nothing else, please shut up and don’t waste our times.<\/p>\n
Thing 15: \u201cPeople in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries\u201d
\nGeorge W. Bush: \u201cThe problem with the French is they don\u2019t have a word for entrepreneurship.\u201d Lot of people like to say you need entrepreneurs to make a rich country, the problem with poor countries is the lack of entrepreneurs.
\nIn fact, developing countries teem with micro-entrepreneurs selling things you didn\u2019t know could be bought and sold. Like professional line queuers who get in line early and sell the place. If full of entrepreneurs, why are these countries poor? Rich countries have many people doing specialized jobs for large companies. In rich countries 1\/8 people is self employed. The rate is 2-3x that in poor countries. Ratio of rich to poor is 4:2. Bangladesh to US is 10:1 . Norway to Benin is 13:1.
\nThe reason this doesn\u2019t result in wealth is entrepreneurship is rarely an individual event now, if it ever was. You need social infrastructure; corporate, legal and financial systems. This is why microfinance has had such little result. Poor country\u2019s with high self employment numbers prove this \u2014 you need structure.
\nFor example: a Croatian microfinance group, helped everyone buy cows. As a result the milk market (which is based on perishable goods) flooded and collapsed, and everyone ended up in more debt. In Denmark, during last century, they bought cows, but had cooperative creameries, made cheese for export, and fed whey to pigs which were then slaughtered in collective slaughterhouse. Individual farmers couldn\u2019t set up creamieres or slaughterhouses themselves.
\n95% of economics is common sense made deliberately complicated . Priests used to do in Latin, economists do it with numbers. All professions build jargon to keep people away, but it\u2019s more advanced in economics. Why treat economists with kid gloves when we have strong opinions on everything else? \u2026 \u201cI\u2019m like the magicians that show you how tricks are done on TV.\u201d There are certainly some secondary things only trained economists can and should do. However we\u2019re often lacking facts that would help us make decisions \u2014 the purpose of the book is to help educate people about economics and encourage them to be \u201cactive economic citizens.\u201d
\nvia 10tonfunk LITE – Notes from Ha-Joon Chang\u2019s Lecture at NYU on \u201c23 Things They Don\u2019t Tell You About Capitalism\u201d<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I just love it when I find something that expresses what I’ve long believed to be true but cannot express in a way that satisfies the frustrated essayist\/writer in me. The new spiel that politicians and social change advocates of the Philippines profess to advocate is entrepreneurship. Bullshit. There is a reason that Silicon Valley … <\/p>\n