In its long-running Dynamic Dominion series, the Times-Dispatch today examines the issue of entrepreneurship in Virginia… or the lack of it. The editorial quotes approvingly an argument I made recently that the intertwined phenomena of lackluster economic growth, persistent unemployment, stagnant wages and the income gap can be traced in large measure to the declining rate of business formation, which in turn can be traced to over-regulation. Observing that Virginia trails the national average for business startups by three-tenths of a percentage point, the editorial surveys the climate for entrepreneurship here in the Old Dominion.
The T-D piece covers a number of other topics: Virginia’s lagging R&D sector, regulation of the craft brewery industry, the failings of business incubators and the folly of municipal investments such as the failed 6th Street Marketplace as job-creation schemes. These are all worthwhile matters to examine. Whether you agree or disagree with the T-D — or with me, for that matter — is less important than whether you give serious thought to this foundational question.
After all, there’s one thing that we can all agree upon: Without a hospitable environment for entrepreneurs, we will never have a strong economy. Without a strong economy, we will never have the resources needed to resolve the social problems we all would like to address. Virginians have too long taken their superior economic performance for granted. We’re losing our edge. It’s time to re-examine the way we do things. The T-D editorial, indeed its editorial series on the Dynamic Dominion, is a necessary start.
— JAB
