It’s Time to Reboot the Startup Economy
The new laws and antitrust actions that would resurrect American innovation
For more than a century now, the key economic advantage of the United States has been its startup economy and capacity for launching new industries. This is innovation, yes, but of a particularly important kind. It is not just the improvement of mousetraps, but rather the pioneering of entire industries that, in time, come to employ millions and generate trillions. Being the place companies get their start has given the United States an extraordinary advantage over the last century, and helped make it the world’s preeminent economic power.
But this advantage, which we sometimes take for granted, is now threatened by excessive consolidation in the U.S. economy. The most obvious symptom is the decline of the American startup. As a recent Brooking study shows, startup rates have declined dramatically across the economy. In an extraordinary development, the number of companies shutting down has grown to match the number that are starting up. The Department of Labor shows a declining number of people working for startups, while the Center for American Entrepreneurship documents a relative decline in American VC funding relative to the rest of the world. We may, in short, be entering a “startup winter.” This is a problem that…
