Schumpeter, Joseph (1883–1950)

A giant among 20th-century economists, Joseph Schumpeter is best known for his path-breaking work on capitalism, innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth. He coined the phrase creative destruction to describe capitalistic growth as the ceaseless killing off of old ways of doing business by the new. He is not often thought of as a libertarian. Nevertheless, with his love of free markets; his stress on human freedom, initiative, and drive to succeed as the mainspring of growth; his belief in capitalism as the best, arguably the only, system capable of continuously raising the living standards of all (especially the poor); his focus on the lone-wolf entrepreneur who against all odds creates the new products, markets, technologies, and organizations that propel the economy forward; his opposition to government ...