More Entrepreneurs Needed to Help the Middle Class

I wrote a blog back in June entitled, "The Unemployed Need New (Entrepreneurial) Alternatives". The focus of that article was my passionate belief that we need more national and local leaders investing more time focusing on creating entrepreneurial opportunities and options as a necessary means to recover from this unemployment crisis. One thing I wrote was, "More money, time, and energy needs to be invested into helping people build small and micro-businesses through entrepreneurship training." Unfortunately I haven't heard a lot of national or local leaders talking about entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment. Well, maybe that is finally changing.

Recently in Businessweek an article entitled "Wanted: More Black Entrepreneurs", focused on the necessity of entrepreneurship as a key strategy to stop the erosion of the black middle class. Several black business leaders are finally coming forth and saying that we need to address the problems of economic disparity differently now than we may have in the past. The article highlighted the significance of the unemployment problem:

"Job cuts in the debt-strapped public sector, where one in five black workers is employed, have had an outsize impact on the African American community. Labor Dept. data show some 280,000 public employee positions were cut last year, even as the overall economy added 1.64 million jobs. Black unemployment increased to 15.8 percent in December, more than twice the level for whites. So black business leaders are shifting focus to addressing issues in the small business sector, where most new jobs are created and African Americans haven’t fared well."

I believe the faith community has to be more invested into generating energy and ideas that will resolve this problem for families and communities. One reason is because entrepreneurism is a trait endowed to us by our Creator. He is an entrepreneur. We should be entrepreneurial in all we do. Our acceptance of this knowledge has major spiritual, practical, and financial ramifications.

Business leaders like are coming out an saying more entrepreneurs are needed now more than ever. Now we need more pastors speaking on it, so that we can add some entrepreneurial works to our faith.

Read the full Businessweek article here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/wanted-more-black-entrepreneurs-01192012.html

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