”The Forbes 400 As a Lesson in Economics” av John Tamny är en jättebra artikel som ytterligare behandlar ämnet som Magnus Henrekson tog upp i sin DN Debattartikel, nämligen entrepenörernas roll i ekonomin: ekonomins sanna motor; samhällsbärarna. Medan merparten av de dominerande företagen i Sverige har startats före 1970 och många klagar på att ”klyftorna” i samhället ökar, till följd av att alldeles för många är utanför arbetsmarknaden, ser bilden radikalt annorlunda ut i USA:

Even though the wealth gap is a positive in most economies for driving the economic creativity of those not-yet-rich, much is made of it in the media and among politicians who worry about individual wealth consolidation even more than they do the corporate kind. A quick look at the Forbes 400 would surely assuage some of their fears.

Indeed, of the charter members of the first Forbes 400, only 32 remain today. Far from a country where only the rich get richer, the wealthy in the US are very much a moving target. While there are 74 Forbes 400 members who inherited their entire fortune, 270 members are entirely self-made. Though many attended Harvard, Yale and Princeton, there are countless stories within of high school and college dropouts, not to mention others who grew up extremely poor. Politicians who regularly engage in class warfare would do well to keep the Forbes 400 out of the hands of their constituents, because it makes a mockery of the kind ”Two Americas” rhetoric suggesting the existence of a glass ceiling that keeps hard workers at the bottom of the economic ladder. To read the Forbes 400 is to know with surety that the U.S. is still very much the land of opportunity.

John Tamny nämner även Ludwig von Mises:

Ludwig Von Mises once wrote that the entrepreneur who fails to use his capital to the ”best possible satisfaction of consumers” is ”relegated to a place in which his ineptitude no longer hurts people’s well-being.” Conversely, successful entrepreneurs give consumers what they want, and remove what Von Mises termed ”uneasiness” from our daily lives by making us happier, healthier, and frequently, wealthier. When we read the stories of these brilliant capitalists, it becomes apparent that Von Mises knew well what he wrote.

Sedan fortsätter Tamny genom att förse läsaren med massor med exempel från Forbes 400-listan på hur entrepenörer har skapat enorma värden; hur de har drastiskt ökat levnadsstandarden för praktiskt taget alla genom att göra våra liv bättre ur alla tänkbara avseenden. Hela artikeln är i princip en enda lång hyllning till dessa moraliska hjältar; världens Hank Reardens och Dagny Taggarts.

Läs hela här.