How do you get rich in today’s America? Founding an artificial-intelligence startup may look tempting, but most fail. Getting an advanced degree and slogging it out as a corporate lawyer or financier was once a reliable path to wealth, but now looks threatened by ai. Perhaps you should look instead to the company that has plausibly created more millionaires than any other in history: McDonald’s. Most of its outlets are franchises, run by independent firms that pay royalties to the brand—and often make a fortune. If fast food isn’t your thing, do not fear: the franchising model can be found everywhere from hotels to Pilates studios.
De redactie van NRC selecteert de beste artikelen uit The Economist voor een breder perspectief op internationale politiek en economie.
They may not have the social cachet of a Wall Street corner office, but franchises make many Americans wealthy. If reports are to be believed, the country has even recently minted its first billionaire franchisee. They also boost growth. More countries should try creating a franchise economy—and America should protect the one it has from overregulation.
Franchises have long been sneered at. As the model spread in the 1970s and 1980s it was derided by economists as little more than a cheap growth tactic in which franchisees stumped up the capital to open new outlets. Critics claim that franchisees are not „true” entrepreneurs, in the mould of Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, but merely glorified store managers obsessed with the illusion of being their own boss. Yet franchising has come to account for a steadily growing share of American business: there are almost 850,000 franchise outlets, run by a quarter of a million business-owners. One in eight businesses with at least one employee in America is a franchise—roughly double the share in its closest international rivals, such as Japan and Germany.
