Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Call of the Entrepreneur

I went to see the Chicago Premier tonight of the Acton Institutes's film The Call of the Entrepreneur. The film looked at the utility of entrepreneurship to society in the guise of three people, a compost farmer in Michigan, a merchant banker in New York, and a media mogul in Hong Kong.

To often, people view the economy as a zero sum game. Yet, that is far from true. Levittown made the Levitts wealthy, but did it really pauperize anyone? It gave people like my grandfather jobs building the houses, and created new homes for people needing homes. Wealth was not transferred, it was created from basic materials with labor, risk and a desire of others to buy. No one was impoverished by building Levittown, rather people were enriched to varying degrees.

After the film, the producer had a question and answer session. When all that is said and done, what is the real difference between rich and poor societies. It is not race or religion but rule of law. In countries with rule of law, people are able to take risks. If there is not rule of law, if private property is not respected, society becomes impoverished.

Keeping with the beliefs of the Acton Institute, the film has a strong undercurrent that faith and economic liberty need not be in opposition, but rather entrepreneurship is really something from God.

I highly recommend the film.

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