by: F.R. Duplantier

Steve Mariotti knows a secret and he's sharing it with everyone. It's a secret, he says, with "enormous positive implications for the future of society." And here it is: "Children born into poverty have special gifts that prepare them for business formation and wealth creation. They are mentally strong, resilient, and full of chutzpah," Mariotti affirms. "They are skeptical of hierarchies and the status quo. They are long-suffering in the face of adversity. They are comfortable with risk and uncertainty. They know how to deal with stress and conflict."

In a speech reprinted in a recent issue of Imprimis, the monthly publication of Hillsdale College, Mariotti, the founder and president of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, explains that the character traits acquired by children in poverty "make them ideally suited for breaking out of the cycle of dependency . . . and for getting ahead in the marketplace." He argues that "their experience surviving in a challenging world" enables them "to perceive and pursue fleeting opportunities that others, more content with their lot in life, tend to miss."

Why is this natural aptitude not being exploited? "Children born into poverty have all the characteristics of the classic entrepreneurs," Mariotti observes. "It stands to reason, therefore, that as a society we should make special efforts to encourage the development of entrepreneurial skills among low-income youths. But," he laments, "we have done just the opposite, spending over $1.5 trillion since the beginning of the War on Poverty in the 1960s on public assistance programs that are actually designed to protect children from the free enterprise system."

Mariotti asserts that "the free market offers the most effective way of identifying what we are good at and how our comparative advantages can be developed. Public assistance," he points out, "limits and, in many cases even prevents, its recipients from engaging in this vital process of self-discovery. As a result, generation after generation of children born into poverty are settling for the security of welfare while missing out on the thrills and challenges of competition. Properly developed," Mariotti asserts, "their skills might be highly valued in the marketplace -- but they will never find out."

Or will they? Can you keep a secret? Then go away. You're of no use to us. What we need are some bona fide blabbermouths, good-natured gabbers who will tell everyone they know -- and many a stranger -- about Steve Mariotti's inspiring discovery. Tell the teachers, tell the preachers, tell the parents in the bleachers. Most important of all, tell the kids whose enormous entrepreneurial potential is being stifled. Make sure they know that academic achievement is not the only route to success, nor even the best one. Pluck, hard work, persistence, and ingenuity will carry them much further than straight A's and book learning. Tell them about Steve Mariotti and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and help them put his principles into practice.