Entrepreneurship Archives - Page 6 of 6 Voice For Liberty

Aug

Wichita’s Naysayers Are Saying Yes to Liberty

Wichita politicians, newspaper editorial writers, and sometimes just plain folks are fond of bashing those they call the "naysayers," sometimes known as CAVE people. An example is from a recent Opinion Line Extra in the Wichita Eagle: An acquaintance in another city refers to the anti-everything people as "CAVE" people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything). I fear the GOP voters of western Sedgwick County have selected the ultimate CAVE person in Karl Peterjohn. Naysayers, too, can't be happy, according to a recent statement by Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer: "And I know that there’s always going to be people who are naysayers,…

Aug

By Bob Weeks

Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer saves us from covered wagons

On August 12, 2008, at a meeting of the Wichita City Council, Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer delivered remarks that I found ... well, I'm still trying to find the words that fully describe my astonishment. You can read my transcription of his remarks in this post: Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, August 12, 2008. The context of these remarks is that John Todd and I had just testified against the city establishing a tax increment financing (TIF) district that benefits a local developer. Mayor Brewer believes it is the city's firm duty to guide and subsidize economic development. His remarks on…

Aug

By Bob Weeks

Downtown Wichita Arena TIF District

Remarks to Wichita City Council, August 5, 2008. When I've been talking to people in Wichita, I find there is great confusion about the way that TIF districts work. This confusion serves to obfuscate what really happens with TIF districts: the TIF developers get to use their own property taxes to pay for things that non-TIF developers have to pay for out-of-pocket, or through special tax assessments on top of their regular property taxes. It is really this simple. To deny this is to deny simple arithmetic. Then, do TIF districts perform as promised? One of the troubling things I…

Jul

By Bob Weeks

In Wichita, is Economic Development Proven Public Policy?

In a statement read by Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and released on the city's website at Mayor Brewer Warren Theatre [sic] Statement, the mayor states "Economic development is proven public policy." The word "proven" was used several other times in the statement. (I don't know who wrote the title to the statement, but it combines the mayor's name with theater developer Bill Warren's name in a way that is, I am sure, unintentionally humorous. Mayor Brewer Warren? Who is he?) The Warren Theater economic development project is one example of economic development that has proven not to work, despite the…

Jul

By Bob Weeks

Wichita and the Old Town Warren Theater Loan

Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 1, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, we are potentially beginning a journey down a road where there are two classes of businesses in Wichita. There are business owners who seek to earn their profit through market entrepreneurship, that is, by meeting the demands of their customers and the marketplace. That's a difficult thing to do. An entrepreneur must sense customer demand and desires, and then commit resources to satisfying customers. If entrepreneurs are correct in their judgments and successful in their execution, they earn profits. There are…

Apr

By Bob Weeks

The Entrepreneur As American Hero

This is an excerpt of a speech given by Walter E. Williams on February 6, 2005 at Hillsdale College. The complete speech, titled "The Entrepreneur As American Hero," can be read here: http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2005/03/. At this juncture let me say a few words about the modern push for corporate social responsibility. Do corporations have a social responsibility? Yes, and Nobel Laureate Professor Milton Friedman put it best in 1970 when he said that in a free society “there is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits…

Jan

By Bob Weeks

The Value of the Businessman

An outstanding feature of the open market is the businessman, whose success or failure depends entirely on his ability to "focus on consumer needs" and so combine existing and potential factors of production to serve consumers most efficiently. The only constructive role government can play under the free market method of overcoming poverty is to see that the participation of individuals is strictly voluntary--that none is permitted to steal from or cheat or enslave another. In the free and open society, the organized force of government is to be used only if necessary to protect the lives and property of…