Entrepreneurship

American Entrepreneurship Is Actually Vanishing. Here’s Why.

Claims this article.

But it’s wrong, at least for the reasons.

The economy is now sink or swim. Obamacare did nothing to ameliorate that. Taking risks does not pay off; in fact, it harms you.

Employers don’t see having worked for or founded a start-up (outside of very small bastions like Silicon Valley) as a real job. You will have problems passing background checks and therefore problems getting hired if you found or work for a start-up.

I know — I was contracting for a start-up for over a year where I did a lot of difficult technical things on my own, without the usual assistance (other team members, official vendor support, etc.) and no company I later interviewed with saw it as a real job despite it being more difficult than most of my “real” jobs.

And also there are no societal safety nets now. Student loans can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, therefore many people with them will not take the risk of crashing and burning and being unable to repay loans.

Health insurance is now mandatory, but not cheap, so yet another cost that dissuades entrepreneurship. (In the past, many would forgo health insurance and risk it. No longer an option.)

So the great risk shift in society has dissuaded entrepreneurship greatly.

That’s really what happened — another example of the Baby Boom generation accruing all the advantages, pulling up the ladder behind them and then blaming their kids and grandkids for failing.