> > Maybe, we should rather assume wanting to start a company is the normal case and ask what keeps most people from wanting to start their own business.

> I know this was definitely the case in the 70s. My father's and grandfather's generations mostly started their own businesses rather than work for somebody else.

Self-employment has fallen over the years, to be sure, but it wasn't the norm two generations ago; by BLS figures, in 1948, it was 18.5% of all workers whose primary work was self-employment; as of 2009, it was around 10.9%.