Friday 18 December 2015

Is there a "lefties" and "entrepreneurs" movement?

It finally struck me today to put a momentarily idle braincell or two to something that they (the braincells) had been whispering to me about for some time.

The thrust of this blog is and has always been that most of societies problems are rooted in deficits in freedom (the liberal bit) and/or civil power (democracy).

Over recent years, it has become clear to me that there is a clear differentiator between the newer tech rich (Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Mark Shuttleworth and many others), and those whose riches stem mainly from unearned incomes such as those when a price is far above the cost of production (economic 'rents').

These true entrepreneurs earned money from creating a lot of something that people want in a generally free market , as opposed to gaining access to a limited physical resource (such as oil, or development land), and then being able to charge whatever the market will bear, with economic growth and progress just pushing these prices up further.

Accepted, we might all question Microsoft's methods, but they did not have a monopoly over some in demand physical resource such as oil costing as little $1 to produce with over %1000 profit margins.

The difference I notice is that having done something aimed at providing something people need and want, and done so through innovation, these people then tend to look to solve other more challenging needs in the same way, such as the recent alliance for clean energy, or work on eradicating Polio by the Gates Foundation.

This difference is also notable at a more humble level within our local communities.  There are those who came from a wealthy background who often go to work in the City, end up buying lots of 'investment' properties etc, and also those who from a 'normal' background get stuck into solving technical problems, or simply doing those jobs that are very hard work and often with very little reward other than a paycheck.

Politically, the privileged are often labelled the "right" and the workers the "left".

This really leaves out the wealthy entrepreneurs, and the liberal middle class.

To get to my point, I finally realised what unites those who make the world a better place and earn their place in it.  They, we, are the producers.

After the UK 2015 General Election, it's clear that the non-producers, the parasites, gained power and we have a problem.

Perhaps it is time for a new political movement: the producers.

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