My Personal Blog - SeanandRuth.us

You can find my personal blog covering non-political topics at http://seanandruth.us

Monday, October 10, 2011

Wealth isn't Created by Government; It's Created by YOU

I remember as a kid talking to my brother about how the government should print money to pay for everything and get rid of the national debt. It's funny how some adults still think like children: wealth is just paper.

Wealth isn't paper: it's stuff people value enough to give up free time to work for. Even more, people that create wealth don't do it simply by wanting it, but by actualizing it--without nagging (or government subsidies).

Gary North writes in one of his weekly tips on "How You Can Earn a Bachelor's Degree from an Accredited College in 3 Years for Under $15,000":
I encourage you in your efforts to improve your skills. But the power of the Day Timer and the Palm Pilot to increase Americans' productivity tells us that it is not our skill sets that are our personal key to success; it is our ability to meet deadlines without letting things fall through the cracks.
This is why a college education really does pay off. College removes external nagging, which still exists in high school. College leaves the student on his own. If he survives this last test -- deadlines without nagging -- he is ready for adulthood.
Businesses hire college graduates, not because of their skill sets, but because of their ability to survive an inefficient bureaucratic system that imparts little formal knowledge that is as important as the ability to meet deadlines without being nagged. College is the first nagging-free environment for about one-third of Americans. Half of them don't graduate.
You can sign up for Gary North's tip of the week at http://garynorth.com/.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Steve Jobs, an entrepreneur who experienced winning and losing

NPR featured a great short piece on Steve Jobs's life, and one thing that strikes me: we live in a world full of businesses who "need" subsidizing, but he didn't.

The greatest enemy of the entrepreneur is government intervention.
Perry E. Gresham
Liberty and the Entrepreneur 
We keep hearing that businesses are "too big to fail" and about companies who "need" subsidies so they can "scale" production to "break in" to the market.

What if the companies that are "too big" are just sucking up capital that could be reinvested?

The entrepreneur, moreover, must be able to face failure and be resourceful enough to learn from it. Some of the most successful companies in America are the result of early entrepreneurial failures. The imaginative and creative business person learns by failure, as well as by success.
Perry E. Gresham
Liberty and the Entrepreneur