THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SOCIETY

A última ECONOMIST (abrir em baixo, à direita) dedica um "relatório especial" ao empreendedorismo, a ler e estudar bem.
Para abrir o apetite, e com a devida vénia, aqui fica o último artigo do relatório com sublinhados em bold meus, que dá o título a este post (e que mistura empreendedorismo com neurónios, não dando para traduzir):

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SOCIETY
Mar 12th 2009


Better, on the whole, than managed capitalism

THE rise of the entrepreneur, which has been gathering speed over the
past 30 years, is not just about economics. It also reflects profound
changes in attitudes to everything from individual careers to the
social contract. It signals the birth of an entrepreneurial society.

How can policymakers adjust to this change? The first thing they need
to do is shed some common misconceptions about the meaning of
entrepreneurial capitalism. In any discussion of entrepreneurship, the
phrase most frequently invoked is Schumpeter's "creative destruction".
That can be unhelpful, implying that "destruction" and "creation" carry
equal weight and that mankind will be in for a rough time in perpetuity.

Columbia University's Mr Bhide points out that a great deal of creation
is of the non-destructive variety. Rather than displacing existing
products and services, many innovations promote and satisfy new
demands. William Nordhaus, an economist at Yale University, points out
that about 70% of the goods and services consumed in 1991 bore little
relationship to those consumed 100 years earlier. There are worlds of
non-destructive creation yet to be conquered--new cures for diseases,
say, or innovations that will improve the life of elderly people. And
even when the creation does involve some destruction, there is usually
not a lot of it. Most innovations increase productivity and improve the
general standard of living.

IT'S FINE TO BE BRILLIANT
Entrepreneurialism promotes individual creativity as well as economic
dynamism. One of the most chilling chapters in William Whyte's "The
Organisation Man" (1956), a study of corporate America at the height of
managed capitalism, was entitled "The Fight Against Genius". The
thinking at the time was that well-rounded team players would be more
valuable than brilliant men, "and a very brilliant man would probably
be disruptive." Entrepreneurial capitalism has brought the
rehabilitation of the "very brilliant man".

Entrepreneurial capitalism is not as disruptive as many of its
friends--and most of its enemies--imagine. It produces a bigger pie and
allows more people to exercise their creative talents. But it is
disruptive nonetheless. It increases the rate at which companies are
born and die and forces workers to move from one job to another.
Policymakers have to find the right balance between flexibility and
security.

The most urgent need for reform is in continental Europe. Policymakers
in the larger European economies need to learn from the Scandinavian
countries that it is possible to have a safety net without clogging up
the labour market. If people are hard to sack, start-ups find it more
difficult to get off the ground. And high unemployment rates discourage
people from branching out on their own because they might not find
another job if they fail.

America suffers from serious rigidities of its own. The mobility of
American workers is severely restricted by the country's reliance on
employer-provided health insurance, a relic of the second world war.
New firms often have to pay more for their health care because they
have smaller "risk pools" than larger companies. America's health-care
system is bad at controlling costs, imposing a heavy burden on the
whole economy, particularly the newest and most fragile firms.

"Every generation needs a new revolution," Thomas Jefferson wrote
towards the end of his illustrious life. The revolution for the current
generation is the entrepreneurial one. This has spread around the
world, from America and Britain to other countries and from the private
sector to the public one. It is bringing a great deal of disruption in
its wake that is being exaggerated by the current downturn. But it is
doing something remarkable: applying more brainpower, in more countries
and in more creative ways, to raising productivity and solving social
problems. The "gale" that Schumpeter celebrated is blowing us, a little
roughly, into a better place.