As Access To Risk Capital Becomes Difficult, Emulation Lapses Into Envy

Professor Reuven Brenner of the Desautels Faculty of Management, discusses stabilizing currency exchange rates and redesigning taxes which will help replenish risk capital and encourage entrepreneurship.

In a 2007 interview, Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said that the United States' unique features assure it would recover from any grave setback.

One was that the U.S. does not suffer the "plague of envy." Instead, when U.S. citizens see the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg succeed, they want to emulate them. Emulation, Fisher said, brings about the entrepreneurial spirit, a willingness to take risks and the desire to bet on new ideas.

This observation was originally made by Bernard de Mandeville, whose Fable of the Bees, published in 1714, reached this conclusion: "Envy Itself and Vanity / Were Ministers of Industry." At the time, "envy" and "emulation" were often used as synonyms. Both Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes fundamentally agreed with de Mandeville's insights.

Read full article: Forbes.com, November 11, 2010