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I\’m not sure that the Murphmonster knows what an entrepreneur is

The article is about red tape, but I think that misses the point. The fact is that around the world we don’t need vast numbers of new entrepreneurs right now. The fact is that much of what entrepreneurs can make right now is of limited social value, often uses scarce resources in wasteful fashion, and meets artificially generated wants and not fundamental needs.

The last point is, perhaps, the most important. People need healthcare, education for life, homes, flood defences, social safety nets, care and more. Candidly, they need few more phones (at least in developed countries) or many more apps, or gadgets, or even coffee shops in many parts of many cities. Entrepreneurs are, therefore, not what we want.

We need teachers, social workers, carers, librarians, builders working for local authorities to make new homes and repair existing ones, planners, and so on. It is they who are delivering the value in our society now – because they’e fulfilling need, not wants.

We are a society in poverty that the market cannot correct. The sooner we realise it and stop our fixation with market solutions and realise that it is through the community, wioth government as its agent, that most pressing wants can be met the better off we’ll be.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to stop entrepreneurs. But fixating on them is a sign of our problem, not the solution we’re seeking and realising that is important.

The problem with this is that Ritchie just doesn\’t understand what an entrepreneur is.

No, an entrepreneur is not an inventor. Nor, necessarily, a capitalist. Nor necessarily a provider of private goods. An entrepreneur is someone who organises extant productive resources into a new combination. Most of these attempts fail ludicrously. Some succeed and change the world for the better. But there\’s absolutely nothing at all that says that entrepreneurs could not or cannot deliver those things that The Murph is saying that society desires and wants.

Housing for example: the bloke who gets some land and organises to build houses on it: he\’s an entrepreneur. This is the provision of housing through entrepreneurial activity. The bird who first organises the taking of cooked meals around the houses of the elderly: she\’s an entrepreneur and this is how Meals on Wheels started.

Entrepreneurial activity is simply looking around at the world and considering whether extant resources can be used, either more efficiently to do current things, or combined in new ways to do new things. Why on earth anyone would think that we don\’t want this to happen in the provision of services is entirely beyond me.

54 thoughts on “I\’m not sure that the Murphmonster knows what an entrepreneur is”

  1. And a teacher that comes up with a way of teaching that engages children and makes them really interested in the subject or gets really good results from it is also an entrepreneur.

  2. He means he wants less of this freedom malarkey. He wants a Contagious State, directed by falangist retired accountants, to tell people what to do. Not that he wants to stop entrepreneurs, just make it virtually impossible for them to try anything.

  3. “The fact is that much of what entrepreneurs can make right now is of limited social value, often uses scarce resources in wasteful fashion, and meets artificially generated wants and not fundamental needs.”

    I take it he’s against windmills then.

  4. I cannot articulate how depressed reading that made me feel. And angry at the evil intent that lies within it.

  5. We need teachers, social workers, carers, librarians, builders working for local authorities to make new homes and repair existing ones, planners, and so on.
    ====

    = We need public sector workers but not the private sector growth to pay for them…this guy makes me sick.

  6. He’s also completely wrong about Human needs. Humans only need: Water, Food, Shelter, in that order. Everything else is a luxury.
    Naturally, all the things he considers to be needs are provided by his Masters in the State Employee Unions.

  7. We need teachers, social workers, carers, librarians, builders working for local authorities to make new homes…

    Jesus, even the Soviets had enough sense to call for people who were actually going to contribute to the economy!

  8. “We need teachers, social workers, carers, librarians, builders working for local authorities to make new homes”

    Excellent, so Ritchie will lead by example and give up all this union paid campaigning shit and go out and build some council houses then?

  9. Er, isn’t that fact that people are spending money on “wants and not fundamental needs” a sign of affluence, not poverty?
    If you buy a 40″ TV you probably already have food and shelter.

  10. The basis of all the nostrums put forward by the Murphmeister was summed up by Mussolini as the fundamental principle of fascism: all within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.

  11. I remember learnign what an entrepreneur is when I was fourteen. I wish the teacher had also told me that I then knew more than people who are paid very well to write for the national press. I could have dropped out of school and had some fun.

  12. despondency
    irritation
    anger
    sadness

    Where do you go with someone like this?

    Not only does he not understand what an entrepreneur is or does, but he wishes to condemn us to a second-rate, North Korean future run by Ed Balls.

    How can anyone so dedicated to pontification be really so far removed from reality?

    How is he going to pay for his wish list?

    Does he think that new antibiotics are going to be discovered by people like Blower at the NUT?

    Constant innovation is what has got us to the happy situation where most people can make a decent life for themselves.

    What does he make of somebody like Khan of Khan’s Academy?

    I hope he will soon publish a list of what I can have and in which year I am likely to get it.

  13. Do we really need qt education for life qt? Is this a fundamental human right?

    And I do not believe him. I think he really does want to stop entrepreneurs.

  14. More librarians? It’s ironic that a load of entrepreneurs have pretty much replaced them with computers.

    It’d be like calling for more farriers.

  15. “Excellent, so Ritchie will lead by example and give up all this union paid campaigning shit and go out and build some council houses then?”

    Think how much richer and better provided for the UK would be if all these well-educated, passionate left wingers who are forever blogging, tweeting, writing posts in the Independent and “campaigning” actually devoted their energies to setting up multi-million pound businesses.

    At least RM has spent 20-30 years in the wealth-creating private sector. But Owen, Penny, Sunny, Seamus……come on.

  16. “The sooner we realise it and stop our fixation with market solutions and realise that it is through the community, with government as its agent …”

    I cannot believe he is 55. Clearly he does not remember how wonderfully the UK worked without a “fixation on market solutions” and “with government as its agent”. Although the last few governments have continued to take a sizeable chunk in tax, and with (arguably) even less to do than they did post-war, easily the worst aspects of modern life remain the bits with government as the agent.

  17. the problem is that a powerful government does not remain the “agent” of the community but the agent of the commanders. This has been proven over and over and over again. you really do not need to study a lot of history to know it

  18. Richard Murphy probably wants to run his courageous state. But last time I saw an accountant in charge of a business they cut back on biscuits to save money but didn’t swap the expensive lease cars for something cheaper. Imagine a country run by accountants and bean counters.

  19. @ Alex If you buy a 40″ TV you probably already have food and shelter.

    Ah, but only at the expense of someone else who lives in a bivouac in the woods, thanks to your naked greed.

  20. It-d be like calling for more farriers.

    Indeed it would Tim A. Thanks for providing me with the first chuckle of the morning.

  21. Communism and facism are identical.

    They are a method by which the State wields absolute power.

    Murphy (the communist or facsit) wants nothing to happen without his approval.

    All money generated by the individual should be given to Murphy.

    All human activity should be prescribed by Murphy.

    There is a name for this psychiatric condition. But rather than treatment, it might be more humane – to the rest of us – to have him put down.

  22. I suspect him of narcissism, having seen a friend of mine have something of a breakdown in that direction recently.

    That’s narcissism in the technical sense, not the popular one: he knows absolutely that he is right, he can’t quite appreciate that other people don’t think he’s the bee’s knees, he doesn’t recognise behaviours in himself that he castigates in others, and so on.

  23. He’s right you know. When you think about it, all we really need is a cave, some wood for a fire, a plentiful supply of rabbit and deer with limps and a nearby stream.

    Of course, we’d also need 500,000 bureaucrats to ensure that none of us take more than our fair share of these essentials but that would be a price worth paying for such a nirvana.

  24. This is worth a read – sums up exactly what Pellinor says at 23.

    It’s quite funny to see my sister quoted in the comments there for the purposes of rebuffing Ritchie!

  25. “Richard Murphy probably wants to run his courageous state. But last time I saw an accountant in charge of a business they cut back on biscuits to save money but didn

  26. “Richard Murphy probably wants to run his courageous state. But last time I saw an accountant in charge of a business they cut back on biscuits to save money but didn’t swap the expensive lease cars for something cheaper. Imagine a country run by accountants and bean counters.”

    This reminds me a of new boss at the Bank of Ireland, who was going to ‘shake things up’, his first executive decision, wildly reported, was to reduce the number of newspapers purchased each day for head office reception by one.

    Never mind the titanic disaster on the horizon, just look after the unread newspapers!

  27. I’m delighted to learn that Murphey knows just what it is that people need. How would I ever decide that for myself, with my own money?

    I’m truly delighted to see Squander Two back commenting. Long time, no read 🙂

  28. This reminds me a of new boss at the Bank of Ireland, who was going to ‘shake things up’, his first executive decision, wildly reported, was to reduce the number of newspapers purchased each day for head office reception by one.

    If the newspaper in question was The Guardian, it was a wise move.

  29. Where, on the autism spectrum, is Murphy ?

    He exhibits a total inability to take in any data from others, and keeps spewing out his stuck version of “reality”

    Alan Douglas

  30. RM’s insanity has now reached a new level:

    Comment:

    So in your world are you really saying that having,say, a new librarian would be much better than a UK version of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? That seems to be the implication of what you are saying but it would seem an unusual position.

    Reply

    Richard Murphy says:
    June 12 2013 at 6:20 pm

    Yes

    Jobs and Gates are bad for economies

  31. Am I allowed to be depressed by both sides on this “debate”?

    RM has gone overboard in his analysis. I’ll grant almost anyone that (ie I’ll have one Steve Jobs over one random librarian: ceteris paribus. Unless I’m looking for a book. Then the order will be reversed [Hey! context, subtlety so not something for the comments of a blog]). So, subtlety out of the way.

    The absolutely fuckwitted, objectivist, right-libertarian (etc, etc) bullshit of many posters here is a wonder to behold. You (exactly like RM) really have no fucking clue.

    I’ll pick on one comment (at random). My mate (ironic) Tim @ No7:

    “We need teachers, social workers, carers, librarians, builders working for local authorities to make new homes

  32. Remove every job Apple & Microsoft has every created – discount every corporation – income & consumption tax – every family office investment – every dollar towards charity – how much value did the economy and society lose out on?

    The PC revolution would have happened without either of them is my point – and without them the rewards would have been more equitably shared –

    Oh, perhaps I would have been given a million just for being born because someone else took risks and did something..

  33. Reading the comments to that Murphy piece I am more certain than ever that one day he will kill himself. He’s a walking wicket. If he’s not on some sort of medication I will eat my hat.

  34. So Much For Subtlety

    Reading the link Max provided, as a general rule people who go begging for invites to Conferences are just the sort of people who should not be invited to Conferences.

    Murph is amazing. I am a little disappointed that Professor Freedman has not invited him to one. As he would not have his pet claque to back him up, nor would he be able to delete comments – and in fact would be unlikely to be able to dismiss them as trolling or whatever if the Chair knows his business.

    Although it would be cruelty to a dumb animal.

  35. As was pointed out previously, all we “need” is enough food to survive, and enough shelter to keep the elements from killing us.

    Teachers, social workers, ibrarians, builders working for local authorities are not “needed”.

    As George Gilder pointed out, entrepreneurs are following the “golden rule”-do unto others.
    They succeed by paying attention to the wants and desires of large population segments, and FILLING those wants and desires.

  36. I’m not sure Murphy is a narcissist – more of a solipsist. Like all Single Issue Fanatics he believes that the lens through which he views the world is the true one and all other viewpoints are hallucinations. I don’t think there is a single figure in public life (and here I am including the entire crop of numbskulls at the Rigadaun) whose intellectual aspirations so thoroughly outstrip his capabilities.

  37. Sadly there are many who will accept what Murphy says simply because he caters to their own prejudices. There was some guy last century in Germany who catered to prejudice too, whatever happened to him?
    Oh thats right, the nazis arranged to have him sacked.

  38. I liked Pellinor’s comment on Murphy’s blog:
    “Hold on – you accuse me of suppressing argument, then delete the comment I make in reply?!?”

  39. > The PC revolution would have happened without either of them is my point

    Ah, hindsight.

    The Romans had the available technology and know-how to invent the steam train. Had they done so, we’d have had two thousand years of people telling us that it would have inevitably been invented anyway.

  40. What’s superb in the comments section is his reveal that the model he is actually looking to implement in Britain is Cuba. I’ve always though the nearest country to the ‘Courageous State’ was North Korea but Cuba will do – have to echo the comment of David Gillies (#43) – his position as senior economic advisor to the incoming Miliballs government really defies satire….

  41. Any evidence that he would be a senior economic advisor to miliballs?

    It would destroyyyyy the UK and land us in the euro no doubt.

  42. Oc (#50) – I’m only surmising but he is the chief economic advisor to the TUC who bankroll Miliband E – thus I’m assuming the quid pro quo is that they expect ‘their man’ to have a say. Plus the ample examples of the man’s innate narcissism and belief that he is a leading expert on both economics and taxation (despite evincing very little knowledge of either) would lead me to think he won’t be satisfied with anything less than an advisory post. Whether the party itself is foolish enough to put in someone who from a PR perspective would be a walking joke is of course debatable….

  43. > Whether the party itself is foolish enough to put in someone who from a PR perspective would be a walking joke is of course debatable

    Hey, they elected Milliband.

  44. Whether the party itself is foolish enough to put in someone who from a PR perspective would be a walking joke is of course debatable

  45. Whether the party itself is foolish enough to put in someone who from a PR perspective would be a walking joke is of course debatable….

    Wll, Ed will need a diversion 😆 ~ Cheers for that. The country seems to face quite a large risk.

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