This past week much of the talk in the world of entrepreneurship has been about the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Yunus and his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
The Grameen Bank, under Dr. Yunus’s leadership, led the way toward revolutionary micro-credit loan programs. The loans were directed to women in poor areas, who in turn would purchase a goat or a loom or some other item that enabled them to start a small business, become self-sufficient, and rise out of poverty.
However, one other Nobel Prize winner this year is also important to the world of entrepreneurs: Professor Edmund S. Phelps. Professor Phelps won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Over at my Selling to Small Business blog column on BNET, I wrote earlier today about Professor Phelps’ views on capitalism. He explains the answer to the question of why parts of Western Europe seem so opposed to capitalism. It’s because, he says, the term “entrepreneur” has come to be associated with large established businesses, instead of startups and innovative new players. Read “Where Entrepreneur is a Dirty Word”.
Well, there’s also another reason,to tell the truth.
Often small entrepreneurs and professionals do not pay taxes and they’re hardly spotted by financial police.
This means that employees, who can not cheat the tax system, feel themselves left alone to bear the burden of the state machine.
This said, in some European countries small businesses are the most part.