Steve Jobs: Nobel Laureate

Abstract

The remarkable achievements of one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs offer profound insights into the fundamental nature of economy and essential missing links in prevailing economic theory. The career of Steve Jobs dramatically illustrates the central importance of human capital in modern economy and the almost incalculable contribution that a single individual can make to technological advancement, social innovation and wealth creation, while enhancing the lifestyle of hundreds of millions of people. Jobs demonstrated that the real basis of economic value is providing valuable products and services that fulfill human needs and aspirations, not unregulated markets and financial speculation. His apparent failures point to the dual nature of uncertainty that presides over all human activity - both the ever present threat of error and the untold opportunities hidden behind the veil. Widely regarded as a genius for inventing better products, his greatest commercial achievement has been in recognizing the central importance of services in modern society and fashioning integrated social service systems within which products act as an enabling technology.