"My guess is there's two big factors working against entrepreneurship: 1. Health insurance was impossible and/or too costly to get except through an employer, which made being self employed and/or a small employer somewhere between costly and impossible. If that was a factor we should see an uptick in entrepreneurship in the coming years, as people can quit their jobs and get healthcare through the exchanges. 2. Income stagnation for the bottom 99% means fewer and fewer people have the capital to invest in starting a business. That one is harder to solve." - Eric P