The Homa Files

Tom “World is Flat” Friedman laments that there are now a dirth of start-ups which ultimately fuel any economy.

Here’s his Rx …

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NYT: A Gift for Grads: Start-Ups, Thomas L. Friedman, June 8, 2010

Good jobs — in bulk — don’t come from government. They come from risk-takers starting businesses — businesses that make people’s lives healthier, more productive, more comfortable or more entertained, with services and products that can be sold around the world. You can’t be for jobs and against business.

A surprising number of entrepreneurs and innovators have told me they had voted for Obama, and an equally surprising number of them now tell me they’re unhappy.

I think part of the business community’s complaint about Obama has merit.

This administration is heavily staffed by academics, lawyers and political types. There is no senior person who has run a large company or built and sold globally a new innovative product.

And that partly explains why this administration has been mostly interested in pushing taxes, social spending and regulation — not pushing trade expansion, competitiveness and new company formation. Innovation and competitiveness don’t seem to float Obama’s boat.

How can we unleash millions of entrepreneurs.

Curtis Carlson, the chief executive of SRI International, the Silicon Valley-based innovation specialists says he would create a cabinet position exclusively for promoting innovation and competitiveness. “Secretary Newco” would be focused on pushing through initiatives — including lower corporate taxes for start-ups, reducing costly regulations (like Sarbanes-Oxley reporting for new companies), and expanding tax breaks for research and development to make it cheaper and faster to start new firms.

I’d also cut the capital gains tax for any profit-making venture start-up from 15 percent to 1 percent.

I want our best minds to be able to make a killing from starting new companies rather than going to Wall Street and making a killing by betting against existing companies.

Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/opinion/09friedman.html

This entry was posted on June 11, 2010 at 6:56 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.