Death Of The Entrepreneur

The American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades. That's the conclusion of a new study out from the Brookings Institution, which looks at the rates of new business creation and destruction since 1978.

Not only that, but during the most recent three years of the study -- 2009, 2010 and 2011 -- businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed, a first. Overall, new businesses creation (measured as the share of all businesses less than one year old) declined by about half from 1978 to 2011.

The authors don't mince words about the stakes here: If the decline persists, "it implies a continuation of slow growth for the indefinite future." This lack of economic dynamism, particularly the steep drop since 2006, may be one reason why our current recovery has felt like much less than a recovery. As Matt O'Brien noted on Wonkblog last week, annual job growth rates have stubbornly refused to budge above 2 percent for the duration of the recovery.

The authors of the Brookings study dug beyond the national numbers to look at the change in new firms at the state and metro levels and found that they generally mirrored the national trends."

This puts numbers to what I've witnessed over my lifetime, the death of entrepreneurism in America.  I think it's deadly, what do you think?

The death of the small farm was the first sign I noticed, "bigger and better."  Bigger is NOT better.  I saw a 24 row corn planter sitting idle because the electronics wouldn't work.  Right next door was a small farmer like me planting with his "antiquated" 6 row planter with mechanical markers.

The very best sales point of an FFA Chapter in every school in America is the Supervised Agricultural Experience Program.  That teaches a youngster to plan a business, learn by doing it and keeping records on it.  A negative number at the end of the year can be the best teacher.

The man in the picture is Mark Denzler, Rushville, Indiana, and owner of First Choice Seeds.  He has grown his business every year since he started in 1996.  He is one of the few independent seedsmen left.

We lost half our farmers in the farm financial crisis in the 80's.  Ask any farmer about what has happened in agriculture alone.

Ed Winkle