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Handout E: Entrepreneurship Concluding Thoughts

Handout E: Entrepreneurship Concluding Thoughts

Directions: After building the book stand and bridge, read the quotes below and answer the questions.

“The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”
– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

  1. When group members were participating with limited political and economic freedoms, did the leader “load himself with a most unnecessary attention”?
  2. Do you agree or disagree and why with Adam Smith’s assessment that “no single person… no council or senate” can tell others how to best use their talents (“direct private people in what manner they ought to employ”).

“The man of system…is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest diviation from any part of it…He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.”
– Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Read the above quote and think back to when you were participating in the team when there was limited political and economic freedom.

  1. If you were the dictator/leader, was the plan in your head “beautiful”?
  2. If you were one of the dictator’s/leader’s subjects, did you feel that the leader thought his/her ideas were better than others?
  3. If you were the dictator/leader, did you care about what others thought of you or your ideas? Did you feel that it was only necessary to tell others how to build and not necessary to address any other concerns?
  4. If you were one of the dictator’s/leader’s subjects, did you feel that you had other options to building such as sabotaging the assignment or leader’s plans? Were there other “motions of its own” that the leader was not addressing?

“…the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men.”
– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Read the above quote and think back to when you were participating in the team when there was political and economic freedom.

  1. Was time spent on creating, “who was the leader”? Why or why not?
  2. Did everyone participate? Why didn’t some people participate?
  3. In the end, even though some people participated more than others, was the task/goal accomplished?
  4. When filling out the task chart sheet and looking around to other groups, did you get a sense of “I/we have to beat them”? Was there a sense of competition with other groups? Why or why not?
  5. What are some essential features (the “laws of justice” according to Adam Smith) that are necessary to promote entrepreneurship? What made accomplishing the task easier?