Thinking of Cuba and how a large portion of their workers are self employed through second jobs. Many of them seem to have an entrepreneurial spirit. Is there room for someone saying “I want to start a restaurant” and going to a workers council to see if the community needs it? My brother once said he doesn’t want socialism because it means “my dream of starting a business won’t ever happen.”
Is there a way for Socialism to accommodate an individual’s desire to initiate an enterprise without people getting exploited?
But when most people say they dream of becoming an entrepeneur, they aren't talking about the wage theft part. Those people dream of becoming landlords/investors.
Well but the parts of it they're interested in that aren't wage theft are the unalienated labor and having a say in the hierarchy. If they want sole control, then that's just wanting to obtain the oppression of the oppressor. If they want to democratically lead production with other like-minded workers, well, then that's what a socialist economy could be. But that wouldn't really be something I'd call entrepreneurial. I'd call that syndicalism or a co-operative or something.
I don't really think that everyone is thinking of that. Keep in mind that entrepreneurial spirit often gets conflated with innovation/invention, as in, a lot of people want to start a business because they want to make something new. And this is definitely an aspect of entrepreneurship because of how often new business ideas have some sort of twist that they think will give them an edge in the market.
I would say the correct attitude would be that if, in an example, Mr. Kalashnikov has a dream of starting an enterprise to design a machine to make it easier to trim lawns, then a socialist society should a) have a mechanism for determine if this is beneficial for people, or that we at least have the resources to chance it; and b) help Mr. Kalashnikov find comrades with similar interests to help, and c) provide startup capital in some form. Capitalism provides these in the form of the free market (which only very roughly approximates consumer benefit), and the other two are his problem but in return he gets full control. So what mechanisms do we provide that still provide outlets for individual initiative?
The whole "one guy with an idea" thing often is a trope to the extent that it is used to justify autocratic workplace power, but that's not a reason that we shouldn't have systems in place for people with ideas to put them into action, we should just provide more equitable ways to do it. And when you think about it -- why WOULDN'T we want to extend this to the masses? Think of how many people throughout history "had an idea", but had no capital to put it into action? We could actually somewhat reasonably make it so that virtually anyone with an idea has a chance to create an enterprise out of it. We could potentially get a lot more innovation with such a system.
Ok but really I think what they're expressing is the desire to work at a bakery or whatever without having a boss, which in the current system means they'd be the owner. Like I wouldn't expect them to invent the concept of a worker coop in order to not do capitalism in their imaginary scenario.
edit: though there are definitely a lot of tech bro type people who want to be an entrepeneur in order to be the boss and make a bunch of money, so I guess I'm just talking about people who want to do it for its own sake.
That's the point though right? The question is, can socialism allow for people's "sense of enterprise?" The answer is "sure, if it's not being the oppression part that they're into." The nature of the current system doesn't really come into it.
Yeah I guess the answer is it depends on what you mean by entrepeneur
I think for most people, they'd just like to not be alienated from their labor.
I’m using “entrepreneurial spirit” in the context of taking ownership of your labor by fulfilling a need in society. I’m trying to differentiate between entrepreneur in a capitalist society which is “I want to make a lot of money by hiring, directing, and managing people.”
I think everyone has a small sense of enterprise, it just can’t be harnessed correctly with our structures. I think socialism can redirect an entrepreneurial spirit into something better.