Free Republic

I first wrote this in 2010 and I'm considering making it my annual Christmas post. I republished it in 2017 as a response to a study I read: Study: American Kids Lack Entrepreneurial Spirit. That's like a dagger to the heart to someone who knows a bit of history and understands that the American free market has driven more prosperity and pulled more people out of poverty than any system ever in human history. The loss of American entrepreneurial spirit for the world would be like the sun running out of hydrogen. It won't implode immediately, but for freedom and...

A Spanish TikToker living in Finland cannot believe how much easier it is to start up a business in Finland when compared to Spain. On one of Anna Matea’s latest in her series of TikTok videos, she shows how amazed she is at how Finns don’t have to pay Social Security quotas every month like her long-suffering, self-employed countryfolk in Spain do. In fact, it’s the Finnish government who pays the self-employed worker, and not the other way around. For some time now, Finland has positioned itself as an attractive country for those who want to start a business, and...

To all my entrepreneurial patriots out there, I've got a question on Gross Margin (GM) and how do most view the topic of 'paying the entrepreneur' question. Q:As a budding manufacturing business owner/engineer I would like to know if: 1) my $99 price point product has enough margin or if I need to up the price? 2) Would most entrepreneurs include the labor in the GM calc if they are the only one performing labor and they are not supposed to be paying themselves like the sharks on Sharktank always harp on? Background.... I'd really like to keep the price...

You see him night after night, in state after state, giving speeches to crowds in the tens of thousands. As a long-time professional speaker, I personally have been in and around other speakers all of my adult life. I have delivered more than 1060 presentations myself and I have witnessed at least that number live and in-person. Donald Trump, however, stands out like no one else. When you watch the rallies (peaceful protests), what is most incredible about the president is his ability to stand in front of a crowd – sometimes two and three crowds on the same day...

There are so many reasons to celebrate the United States of America. Thankfully too many reasons to celebrate what’s spectacular. Countless books, articles and songs speak to this happy truth. In that case, this write-up will lightly cover just three of many reasons to cheer what rates a routine standing ovation. The U.S. is defined by fierce individualism. Sorry, but we’re not “all in this together” in the Land of the Free. In truth, the inspiring idea that led to the U.S. was the rather novel notion that a very limited government would exist to protect the rights of individuals...

Technology bolsters US dominance of the list, but coronavirus fallout looms largeThe inaugural FT Americas ranking comes at a perilous and uncertain time for many companies, as the coronavirus severely curtails economies, workforces and ultimately growth. Yet the ranking also highlights 500 businesses across the continent for whom innovation and creativity have paid off — attributes that will underpin resilience and enable many of them to thrive once the worst effects of the pandemic are behind them. The FT list was compiled with Statista, a research company, and ranks entrants from across the Americas by compound annual growth rate (CAGR)...

You’re not the center of the universe. In fact, no one really cares about you. It’s harsh, but true. Sure, you have family and a few great friends. They will take particular interest in various parts of your life, helping you when needed. But they don’t care about you nearly as much as you care about yourself. Ultimately, you’re not top of mind to anyone but yourself. When properly understood, this is incredibly freeing and valuable.

Tonight marks the 2-hour season premiere of one of television’s top-rated, most critically acclaimed shows — one that curiously gets little media attention. For nine seasons, “Shark Tank” — a competitive reality program in which inventors pitch to a panel of multi-millionaires (and one billionaire) — has been a consistent ratings winner despite ABC airing it in a Friday night graveyard slot. It’s won four Emmys for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Last August, the show retained its audience against NFL pre-season games. The success of “Shark Tank” has surprised even some sharks. “I thought it was going to be a...

Speaking to workers and business people in Italy’s port city of Genoa Saturday, Pope Francis surprised his hearers by praising entrepreneurship and touting the importance of healthy businesses for the economy. “There can’t be a good economy without good businessmen, without their capacity to create and to produce,” he said, shattering his reputation as an enemy of the free market economy. The Pope recognized that the essential value of work and employment is only possible when companies are sound and successful. Without denouncing unemployment benefits, Francis insisted that state intervention wasn’t a real solution. “A monthly check from the state...

We confidently assume that we have the world's most entrepreneurial nation, and the proof seems overwhelming. Google, Facebook and Twitter are but three (relatively) recent startups that have become corporate titans. Before them, there were others: Microsoft, Intel and FedEx. We seem to excel at nurturing new firms. Or do we? Previous studies have shown that, despite the success of firms like Facebook, the number of startups has dropped sharply, from about 13% of all firms in the late 1980s to about 8% in 2011. Now a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that the expansion...

The Left delights in their moral superiority about shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Progressives and Big Labor are petulant about the dirty dozen stores that will remain open on Thanksgiving Day, and mainstream media carps about the "Black Friday Creep" of businesses opening its doors earlier. I don't shop on Black Friday, and I am home all day with my family on Thanksgiving; however, I understand too that a modern economy never really sleeps. Why should it? How can it? Frank Sinatra sang about how capitalism’s most important city New York, New York is a city that never sleeps....

Patent law is not something most Americans are passionate about or have ever contemplated -- which is exactly why the Obama White House and Congress got away with making radical changes to our time-tested traditions of protecting the fruits of entrepreneurial inventors' labor. It's yet another progressive horror story of abandoning what works in the name of what's politically trendy. For left-wing saboteurs and their Big Business GOP enablers, this means throwing our unique patent system and its constitutional underpinnings under an 18-wheeler. So-called "patent reform" proposals continue to plague Capitol Hill. But like health care "reform" and education "reform,"...

[The one thing to add is that free markets are absolutely necessary so that entrepreneurs can pursue their ideas and innovations.] Google, Entrepreneurs, and Living 500 YearsBy Edward Hudgins “Is it possible to live to be 500?” “Yes,” answers Bill Maris of Google, without qualifications. A Bloomberg Markets piece on “Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality” documents how the billions of dollars Maris invests each year is transforming life itself. But the piece also makes clear that the most valuable asset he possesses —and that, in others, makes those billions work—is entrepreneurship. Google's Bio-FrontiersMaris, who heads a venture capital...

Most of life happens without a central planner. Yet people think we need one. Suppose you'd never seen a skating rink, and I told you that I want to lay down some ice and charge people money to strap sharp blades on their feet. They will zip around on the ice -- young and old, skilled and unskilled. My only rule: Go counter-clockwise. Hillary Clinton would say the rink needs regulation. She calls herself "a government junkie." Government junkies like government plans. Hillary'd probably demand that my rink have an official who tells skaters when to zoom left or right,...

Back in the first century a poet named Juvenal surmised that his fellow citizens of Rome would put up with just about anything from their government, as long as they had enough food and entertainment. "Give them bread and circuses, and they'll never revolt" he wrote sarcastically. In the 1920's Fascist Prime Minister Benito Musolini said much the same thing of his fellow citizens in Italy. The people that he governed would tolerate just about anything he wanted to do, Musoli suggested, "as long as the trains run on time." Today Americans seem as tolerant of bad abusive government...

This is the end My only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end No safety or surprise, the end—The DoorsYou know it’s bad when I begin by quoting The Doors, but “The End” has been stuck in my head since I started collecting stories for this week’s column.The first was Erik Sherman’s Inc. writeup [1] of a recent Brookings Institution report on the decline of American entrepreneurship. According to Brookings, “entrepreneurship has reached at least a three-decade low across virtually all of the country.” Three decades also happens to be as...

Did you know that I started Facebook? Really! Well, sort of ... When I was in college at all-male Princeton, I tried to make money by adding photos to a snarky guide to neighboring girls' schools. The guide had been a profitable publishing success, and my idea was simply to add the girls' pictures. Schools like Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, etc., already published those pictures, so all I had to do was get permission from administrators at those schools. Surprisingly, they gave it to me. Unfortunately for me and my "Face Book," there was no Internet then. So I don't...

Back in the early 1948, two enterprising Californians formed a small company in one of their garages -ala Steve Jobs- then began to manufacture a powerful slingshot of Ash wood. The weapon was of their own design, demonstrated enthusiastically by the pair, and was utilized by shooting clubs for practice/some kinds of hunting, even for firing meat up to trained falcons in flight... Richard Knerr and Arthur 'Spud' Melin were bored with their jobs upon graduation from USC, so they brewed-up the idea of the slingshot, which was a mild success and set their taste for marketing alight. Legend goes that the 'Wham-O' name was taken from the sound...

Israel has many awe-inspiring qualities.  Its people are tenacious and brave.  Its history is unmatched in depth and significance.  And its society reflects the values upon which Western civilization is built.  But discussions of the Jewish State tend to surround its battle for survival – this is a mistake.  We should remember that there is a great deal more to this country and that we have all benefited from its existence.  Israel is a democracy, a strong ally of the United States, and the Middle East’s one true oasis of religious liberty.  I saw all of these qualities during my...

In 2005, James Dupree bought a dilapidated warehouse and garage. Today, after almost a decade of steady investment and physical labor, the once-blighted space is now a vibrant 8,600-square-foot studio showcasing over 5,000 pieces of art. In a Philadelphia neighborhood marked by vacant houses and parking lots, Dupree’s studio is a bright spot of entrepreneurship and esteemed cultural value. His paintings have won numerous awards, are displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and sell for upwards of $40,000 each. He has hosted and taught public art classes at his studio, and plans to launch a mentorship program for inner-city...