Why Successful Civilisations need Entrepreneurs - an answer to @zyx066's Socialist Prescriptions
This post is a response to @zyx066's comment in this post where he raises a fundamental question about the need for entrepreneurs.
I said:
For any means of production to exist in the first place there needs to be an entrepreneur willing to risk his / her time and money to create this means of production.
He responded:
"Needs"? Why? If we as a society deem something necessary or preferable, we can share that risk to the point the risk is eliminated. The fact that you think we "need" one special individual to heroically take a risk for the good of all of society just shows how deeply you're invested in the great man theory of leadership. We're social creatures, so there's nothing wrong with the simple fact that there will always be leaders and followers. It only becomes a problem when the leaders become rulers.
Here is my detailed response that is too long for a comment and deserves a full post.
The Most Successful Example of Socialism
I am very familiar with by far the most successful example of socialism - the Israeli Kibbutz - as I have family, who I visit regularly, that live on one of the few remaining ones that have not been privatised. I am familiar with when and why they DO work and also when and why they DON'T.
There are not so many examples of successful worker coops and very few in areas requiring significant innovation. It may work fine for agriculture or even other well established, low innovation industries, but it is not effective for more advanced forms of production, particularly anything that requires innovation.
The history of the modern State of Israel is very instructive about in this regard.
It started as a true socialist enterprise with the Kibbutz Movement at its core. This was successful in helping the fledgling state survive the constant attacks from the surrounding Arab states and win many existential wars. But it did not provide a sound economic foundation or create the innovation Israel is now known for.
It also relied on a great deal of charity from capitalistic diaspora Jews. By the late 1970s the state had grown too large to maintain this model.
In the early 1980s there was hyperinflation and economic ruin.
The socialist model was discarded and capitalism replaced it.
Today Israel is one of the most economically successful countries on earth - a byword for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Many miss the old socialist days when everyone was poor but equal - but it was unsustainable.
There is a very interesting book entitled "The Rise of Israel - A history of a revolutionary state" by Jonathan Adelman which details these two Zionist revolutions - socialist and then capitalist.
Why do we Need Entrepreneurs?
People with business ideas will not take the financial risks and substantial effort required to put them into practice without the promise of rewards.
The drive, leadership, innovation and dedication of an entrepreneur who founds a new enterprise is essential for its success.
This cannot be done by a collective. The mere existence of capital and labour cannot achieve anything more than the most basic level of subsistence agriculture without the driving mind of the entrepreneur.
Can risk be eliminated by sharing it?
The idea that risk can be shared to the the point it is eliminated is fundamentally false.
If you've ever been involved in a group project you'll know that some people will do the work and others will freeload on others efforts.
Risk is not just financial, it is time, the most important resource.
How do you share the risk that some people will invest their time and others will just freeload? Answer you can't.
Hive is a microcosm of all of this
A perfect example of the above are problems we have marketing, promoting and growing Hive itself while entrepreneurs who have created centralised projects on top of Hive (eg Splinterlands) have managed to grow and market their projects much more successfully.
Software development is amenable to a collective open source approach but marketing, finance, legal, sales, manufacturing and R&D are not so amenable. Believe me I've tried (as part of Utopian) to extend Open Source collaboration beyond software. It is very difficult.
And Hive is an example of a successful collectivist project but still relies on capitalist rewards. It is not socialism.
Why do we need leaders?
Leaders will not take on the risk and demands of leadership if there are not rewards.
This is not just true of humans but of all social animals.
Every pack of animals has a leader and that leader gets the best food, best females etc.
The concepts of limited government, rule of law and democracy are attempts to limit the rewards and ensure leaders don't become absolute rulers, but sadly we are seeing today how quickly these break down and we revert to being pack animals.
We need leader and entrepreneurs because without them civilisation would collapse.
Without the Boss Cocky, everyone would starve.
Please vote for my Hive witness. (KeyChain or HiveSigner)
