J.A. Schumpeter (desde su biografía - 5)

p.177

"In an important piece called "The Function of Entrepreneurs and the Interest of the Worker," which he published in 1927 in a labor magazine, Schumpeter tries to show how the long-term interests of entrepreneurs and workers are almost identical. He begins with an overview of nineteenth-century industrialization in Britain and finds that even with the inmense increase in wealth, the distribution of income remained almost constant. Therefore, the wide-spread notion that industrialization brings the impoverishment of the masses is mistaken.

He then asks whether wealthy people in Britain received too large a share of the rewards of industrialization. He says the answer may well be yes, but that the question itself is flawed. The more appropriate issue is the way in which high earnings motivate entrepreneurs to translate innovations into actual production -and thereby raise the general standard of living. He underpins his argument with a simple calculation of how much money rich people in Britain actually possess -an amount which, if divided among the rest of the population, would hardly raise living standards al all.

Schumpeters's key point here is one he hammered home many times: it is the insatiable pursuit of success, and of the towering premiums it pays, that drives entrepreneurs and their investors to put so much of their time, effort, and money into some new projects whose future is completely uncertain. High entrepreneurial returns are essential to generate gains not only for individuals but also for society, through the creation of new jobs. Financial "speculation," though it gets a very bad press, is an important part of this process. Speculators often turn out to be investment bankers funding the entrepreneurs who in turn push innovations through the economy."