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266 CONCLUSION: THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SOCIETY
Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1776. In the Panic of 1873 the mod-
ern welfare state was born. A hundred years later it had run its course,
almost everyone now knows. It may survive despite the demographic
challenges of an aging population and a shrinking birthrate. But it will
survive only if the entrepreneurial economy succeeds in greatly rais-
ing productivities. We may even still make a few minor additions to
the welfare edifice, put on a room here or a new benefit there. But the
welfare state is past rather than future—as even the old liberals now
know.
Will its successor be the Entrepreneurial Society?
