{"id":41516,"date":"2011-11-10T11:45:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T16:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=41516"},"modified":"2012-01-08T15:07:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T20:07:13","slug":"start-ups-and-safety-nets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/11\/10\/start-ups-and-safety-nets\/","title":{"rendered":"Start-ups and Safety Nets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

George W. Bush did not really say, \u201cThe problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur.\u201d\u00a0 But that statement does fit with the American tendency to view our country as the land of entrepreneurship (literally \u201centerprise\u201d).\u00a0 America is, after all, the land of opportunity, where anyone can become rich.\u00a0 And the way to get rich is to be an independent, risk-taking entrepreneur and start your own business.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we do here in the US, and we do it better than most.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s what we think.<\/p>\n

But look at this chart showing the rate of start-ups per working-age population:
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/em>The US ranks 23rd.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t quite square with all those photo-ops where the president (Obama, Bush, Clinton \u2013 they all do it) goes to some small successful company out in the heartland.\u00a0 What is it about these other countries that makes for more risk-takikng?<\/p>\n

James Wimberly has an answer<\/a>: the safety net.\u00a0 He makes the point with an analogy \u2013 his own photos of kids on a rope-walk \u2013 a single rope hung between two platforms in what looks like the Brazilian rain forest.\u00a0 (It\u2019s really just a replanted hillside, formerly the site of a favela). The kids have safety devices \u2013 hard hats, a safety harness, guide-ropes to hold on to.\u00a0 Without these, only a few of the most f oolhardy would try a Philippe Petit walk.\u00a0 But the safety devices allow lots of kids to take a risk they would otherwise avoid.<\/p>\n

The same logic applies to small business.<\/p>\n

How many Americans are locked into jobs they hate by the fear of losing health benefits? No Dane ever has to worry about losing her right to medical care by quitting her job to go it alone<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Safety devices cost money, but they pay off.\u00a0 On the rope-walk, you can see the reward in the expression on the kids\u2019 faces when they reach the other platform.\u00a0 In the national data, you see it in the those start-ups.<\/p>\n

The countries with significantly higher startup rates than the USA are those with stronger, more comprehensive, and more centralised social safety nets, along with correspondingly higher taxation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See Wimberly\u2019s entire post<\/a> \u2013 with the photos, footnotes, and comments \u2013 for a fuller explanation.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog. George W. Bush did not really say, \u201cThe problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur.\u201d\u00a0 But that statement does fit with the American tendency to view our country as the land of entrepreneurship (literally \u201centerprise\u201d).\u00a0 America is, after all, the land of opportunity, where anyone can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,3920,76],"class_list":["post-41516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economics","tag-nation-united-states","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41516"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41519,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41516\/revisions\/41519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}