David Steelman, the former state rep., and his wife, Sarah, our former state treasurer, are both great friends and supporters of the Show-Me Institute. A few days ago, John Combest linked to an op-ed by David that had been published in the Columbia Daily Tribune, a piece I think would be well worth your time to read. I enjoyed the entire thing, but especially the history involved with this paragraph:

Nassim Taleb, today’s most effective free-market philosopher, points out that of the 500 largest American corporations that existed in 1947, only seven still belonged in Standard & Poor’s 500 just 50 years later. Most had shrunk or collapsed. Yet during this period, when big could and did fail, America’s economic growth was so dynamically powerful it pushed the world to more prosperity and greater freedom. Entrepreneurs filled the void left by failed behemoths. Taleb also points out, unfortunately, that entrepreneurial geniuses cannot compete and therefore cannot innovate if government has a policy to not let the big boys fail — a policy common in communist and socialist regimes.