If tomorrow we repealed every tax, respected every property right, and removed all the constraints that bind entrepreneurship and human initiative — there would still be no guarantee that the poor would realize their power and achieve prosperity. This is because cultural institutions like family, media, schools, and religion are ultimately the true drivers of growth. They are what inspire people to take risks, overcome obstacles, and succeed.
If a country’s cultural institutions revere great football players like Pele, then you will get millions of children aspiring to be the next football star. If a country’s cultural institutions stress engineers and doctors as the ultimate achievement — you will get those. The problem is that football players may lift our spirits, engineers may build our bridges, and doctors may cure our ills, but those professions and role models alone cannot help the vast number of poor achieve power and prosperity.
I argue cultural institutions should put forward business development and entrepreneurship as the greatest achievements one can make. When children are asked: Who do you want to be when you grow up? They should say: I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own business, invent the next great thing and employ thousands of people! If this were the dream of every would-be Pele today, tomorrow poverty would begin to appear like polio – largely eradicated. But ask yourselves — is this what we have today? How many movies, TV shows, or even teachers for that matter, speak highly of business people and entrepreneurship? I think it is no coincidence that by and large my Chinese and Indian friends are aspiring business people and my Western friends are aspiring aid workers and government types. These aspirations are the true leading indicators of future GDP.
Some folks are like dandelions flowers. No matter how thick the concrete or onerous the environment they can break through the barriers. And if they can’t, they will figure out a way how to get around the constraints to power and prosperity. For hundreds of years America was the beneficiary of these dandelions, but this trend is neither sustainable nor desirable. So while changes in cultural institutions are necessary, they are not sufficient. Property rights and legal institutions are needed to achieve the widespread prosperity our species deserves and for which the poor have still been denied. Brazil, China, and India are all examples of countries that improved their cultural institutions while simultaneously improving their economic and legal institutions and because of this, not only do millions of their own poor see increasing opportunities to escape poverty, but even the dandelions that left years ago are returning.
To learn more about the constraints that hold back the poor from achieving power and prosperity, check out PBS’ The Power of the Poor which airs October 8, 10 PM ET (or check your local listing).
Good similes and concise writing.