Entrepreneurship Quotes
Sometimes this is misquoted as 'The business of America is business.' See Woodrow Wilson for an earlier statement of this idea which is almost always incorrectly attributed to Coolidge as the originator of the idea.
What makes this quotation particularly funny is that “entrepreneur” is not originally an English word but was borrowed from the French. However, probably what the president was trying to express is that the French act as if they had not word or concept as they have many economic policies that discourage entrepreneurship. The President while a bright man has never been particularly gifted as an intellectual or an orator, becomes the butt of humor with this quotation. There are Bush supporters who challenge the fact that Bush actually made such a gaff, and there has been no other verification other than Baroness Williams.
Like many ideological political philosophers who developed a following, she tended to exaggerate many of her points and to ignore additional factors. While individual businessmen and politicians pursuing their self interests were certainly necessary for America’s great growth and success, they were not sufficient. Many of the founding fathers sacrificed their fortunes and in some cases their lives to gain American independence. And the sacrifice of millions was necessary in many conflicts were those who fought were rarely enlarging their own fortunes. And equally important factors of American success were the collective action of communities creating schools, roads, bridges, canals. The driver of the businessmen to move into critical areas was the government subsidizing the railroads, proving the telegraph useful, developing the national highway system and the Internet. Most of the great universities and research centers were created as government, charitable or religious institutions where personal profit was not a factor. It is that combination of private and public, self serving and communitarian drives, secular and religious that have created modern America. Many people in Rand’s ere did not credit the private, self serving contributions of many great men, and Rand led the movement to remind all of that critical factor. In the process of making her good point, she tended to ignore the other factors.
Stimson was one of the first to realize the new economic reality in America. In prior years, wealthy individuals financed most business and industrial efforts. However, the need for capital had become so great that wealthy individuals could no longer provide sufficient capital to underwrite some of the business efforts. The age of the corporation was dawning on America and Stimson was one of the first to recognize it.
