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James Madison, “Property”
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Where there are more businesses, there’s more productivity.
It is not uncommon to hear people assert that businesses are especially corrupt because business owners are greedy and will swindle or even hurt people if they are not closely regulated. But is this characterization of businesses true?
There are some bad business owners just as there are some bad people, of course. But the accusations against businesses typically go beyond the impeachment of a few shady business owners—the accusations imply that business itself is something bad, and an incentive for bad behavior.
In talking about this subject, it’s helpful to identify and clarify the principle of what a business is. Let us phrase it as a question: What exactly IS a business?
A business is organized, specialized labor (and other resources) for the purpose of earning a profit by increasing productivity.
Organizing specialized labor—people with particular talents, skills, or knowledge—and other resources—including capital and raw materials—that are specialized for specific work makes a business efficient, and efficiency is productivity.
Consider, as just an example, the smart phone that is likely in your pocket right now. It was made by a business. You could try to make a smart phone by yourself, from scratch. You could hire a team of scientists, engineers, and researchers to develop the technology needed for the phone. You could go around the world and try to get all the raw materials needed for the phone’s hardware, and you could then hire people to design and build the machinery necessary to turn the raw materials into refined, useful materials. And maybe at some point, after some assembly and programming, you might have a useable smart phone (and you might not if the phone doesn’t actually work).
That would be a very inefficient way to get a smart phone. It would cost millions or even billions of dollars, many years of time, and the expenses of many trials and errors.
An alternative would be to walk into a business that sells smart phones (or order one online), pay several hundred dollars, and immediately become the owner of a working, useable smart phone that’s probably much better quality than anything you could make on your own.
Let us address the simple question: Why is the smartphone you purchased in a store so good, so (relatively) cheap, and instantly available? The answer is: The company that makes and sells smartphones is a business. Every business features specialized labor and resources, which makes businesses efficient and productive.
Typically, a business that makes something or offers some service—daily—can make the thing or perform the service far more efficiently than you can. That is why you are willing to pay businesses for many services and products, which is how businesses earn profit.
Just imagine if you tried to make all the things and do all the services for which you typically pay businesses: Imagine trying to build, repair, and paint your own house—plant, cultivate, harvest, and prepare your own food—build your own car from scratch—weave your own cloth and design and make your own clothes—make your own computer—invent your own medicines—etc. Such an exercise of the imagination makes it clear that businesses are efficient and productive precisely because they organize specialized labor and other resources.
Where there are more businesses, there is more productivity because there is more efficiency. Where there are few or no businesses, there is little productivity because each individual person, trying to do everything for and by himself, is not very efficient.
FAQ
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