A new member of our blog roll (Schumpeter’s Century) reminds us that an old member (Blog Maverick) is posting some great things. Here is Mark Cuban on curing what ails the US economy:
You can cut taxes for 95pct of Americans and raise taxes for the rest. You can cut taxes for businesses and retain the Bush Tax Cuts. You can increase or decrease the capital gains tax 5 or 10pct either way. Under both programs the deficit for the country will increase, we will borrow and print more money. 5 or 10pct variance either way, given the big hole our economy is in wont matter.
The cure for what ails is us the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this country. We are a nation of people who encourage , support and invest in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their ingenuity and come up with a new idea.
Its always the new idea that re energizes this country. Industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc, each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of living. Tax policy has never done that. The American People have.
Entrepreneurs who create something out of nothing don’t care what tax rates are. Bill Gates didn’t monitor the marginal tax rate when he dropped out of Harvard and started MicroSoft (btw, it was a ton higher than it is today). Michael Dell didn’t wonder what the capital gains tax was when he started PC’s Limited, and then grew it into Dell Computer. I doubt that any great business or invention started with a discussion or even a consideration of what the current or projected income or capital gains tax was or would be.
I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in classes or presentations and listened to PhD students/professors argue about the role of policy in entrepreneurship. I have always presented a Cuban-like argument — that entrepreneurs thinking of big things are not worried about policy to any great extent. For those who are considering running a small biz (ie 3 location dry cleaner, travel agency, law firm, etc.) policy can be of great importance.
But, like Cuban, I believe it is the entrepreneurs who bring about the gales of creative destruction (see Schumpeter) and truly drive economic growth in the US and global economies. They are not deterred by small things like policy.
Campus Entrepreneurship 