Rich On Money

City of Shanghai

I am not talking about 50 years from now. I am talking about now and the next 10 to 15 years. This is what you need to know. The Fortune 500 companies in this country have net-net, not created one new additional job in the last 20 years. You have to absorb this concept. There have been no new additional jobs created by the largest companies in America in the last 20 years. All the new jobs in this country have been created by small entrepreneurial companies that have remained small or have grown up to be big boys like Microsoft, and Oracle, as well as Cisco. 

If Adam Smith’s invisible hand theory of economic growth has ever been true, it is true now with the creation of small companies and the millions of new jobs they have spawned. We have all been fortunate to live in a country that embodies the entrepreneurial spirit. This is no different than when trail blazers settled the West and put their lives on the line for doing so. It is also no different than when our ancestors no matter where they came from, pulled up their roots and headed to an unknown America, and enjoyed abundant opportunities as a result. 

Liberal Democrats tend to believe that government can do more and more, and maybe it can. I only know that the smaller the economic unit that deals with a problem, the more efficiently the problem is dealt with as a rule. This is why local and state governments are more efficient at dealing with problems in a particular locale or area, than when the federal government attempts to move in with its bureaucratic machinery following in the wake. 

I live in Westport, CT. Just a few miles away you have Westchester County in New York. I notice that the same multi-million dollar house in wealthy Westport pays half the real estate taxes of that in Westchester County. Now no one can tell me the school systems in Westchester are better than the school systems in Fairfield County of which Westport is a town. No, it’s because Westport has a mayor or selectman that runs the town, and is held accountable. In Westchester, it is the county that controls the towns, and therefore they are far less accountable. It is the same throughout the world. 

A small corporation like a small town is much better able to change course immediately when things are not working. Big corporations are slow to respond but control their markets much better because of their mere size. Size can only help you for so long, and it is the same for the disproportionate help that government gives to big corporations in exchange for political contributions, which is a major problem in America. To the extent that government helps only the big corporations and shoves aside small entrepreneurial companies that are really creating the jobs in this country, we are setting up America to become number 2 to China in the next generation or two. 

This is not the legacy we want to leave our children, is it?  China and the Pacific Rim countries are coming on strong. Just look at the pictures in this write-up. These cities compare favorably to anything in the Western world including New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, and Rome. To stay competitive, you have to think competitive.

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