Much has been said of the Chancellor's budget last week where UK debt is projected to increase to 76% of UK GDP, and the wealth generators will see the government take more than half of what they earn. My only comment is to entrepreneurs - 'get going because if you thought you had to work hard, you're going to have to work a lot harder to create the wealth required to dig us out.'
The Sunday Times Rich List shows that of the top 1000, most are self-made fortunes or business people. You have to search hard for the mega-wealthy who simply inherited their wealth. Industriousness and smarts got most of the people there.
Most young people think that they are wealthy in waiting. Give them an opportunity, and they'll get there. So the old Marxist and class rhetoric and divides are not only uninteresting - they are also irrelevant.
What Darling's budget does speak volumes about is how a party comes to and stays in power, and tries to buy an election. For this government has made customers of the electorate who have put it in power. In that sense, Brown's government's values are feudal not fair. They will spend money on anything in order to engender loyalty and grow their influence.
The problem for the Labour party though is their only mission is to convince their clients that they are the answer to whatever happens in society. If you believe that people are best placed to be the architects of their own lives because the tools are there today to do it - education, the internet, low cost of setting up a business, less sexism and racism then ever before, no matter where they start from - poor, middle-class or wealthy, then literally, the Labour party loses any raison d'etre.
The genie is well and truly far out of the bottle. Company man has given way to Micro-entrepreneur. Avon, the cosmetics company, illustrates this point. For full-year 2008, Avon reported that total revenue grew 8% to a record $10.7 billion. Avon representatives grew 7% in 2008, reaching 5.8 million around the world in more than 100 countries, and a significant presence in the UK. Indeed, one in three women in the UK is an Avon customer. Every second of every day 4 Avon lipsticks are sold somewhere.
Individual capitalism is the biggest long-term trend in society; all of society is accommodating it. That mass of micro-entrepreneurs whether Avon representatives, remote home workers, portfolio career people, freelance consultants, and recipients of Fredericks Foundation grants aren't counting on Gordon Brown to fight their corner.
They've taken matters into their own hands, and are building businesses and wealth, leading to a golden age of the entrepreneur in the 21st century. That, dear friends, is the silver lining which will emerge soon.
