Will the Pandemic Lead to a Surge of American Innovation? One Billionaire Thinks So

FILE- In this Sept. 21, 2018, file photo a plane flies past the American flag in Washington. American Airlines reports earnings Thursday, Oct. 25. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

This past week, the President eyed re-opening certain components of business on May 1st. It remains to be seen how long the path to normalcy will be, but will things ever be the same?

Or in some respects, are they likely to be better?

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thinks so. He predicted such not long ago on the Fox News Rundown podcast.

Mark offered an encouraging word: The other side of this pandemic is going to see innovations that were prompted by it.

For many businesses at the moment, of course, it’s a struggle (but not for a very inventive bakery — see here).

As reported by Fox News, Mark noted the climate:

“They’re terrified. Business has dried up from doing great last month or two months ago to almost nothing. And that’s terrifying to anybody who’s ever started a business. … I’ve been in that circumstance before…but there are things that you can do to really try to turn a huge negative into a positive.”

The $2 trillion stimulus package was aimed at helping out:

“If you’re a CEO or an entrepreneur that owns your own business right now, you need to be up to speed immediately. If you keep your employees, if you have fewer than 500 employees and you commit to retain all your employees, the government’s going to pay their salary.”

The way Mark sees it, we’re “already in a recession,” but “we’ll bounce back.”

Let’s get to the ingenuitive virtue of such a strange time.

From Fox:

Offering a message of hope to entrepreneurs across the country, Cuban said he believes the pandemic will lead to the creation of “amazing companies” and the development of new products “that will really change the world.”

It’s not impossible to believe — thanks to who we are as a nation.

Mark observed:

“That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us unique. We truly are a country of entrepreneurs. We have that spirit to go out and start companies, to be creative, to take risks.”

I think he’s onto something:

“There will be new products developed that really change the world. That’s who we are as a country. And that’s why, as bleak as it can seem right now, and as horrific and tragic…we’ll get to the other side, I’m 100 percent certain and we’ll be different when we get there.”

Mark even dropped a bomb not so common these days — our country is exceptional:

“I truly believe in American exceptionalism. There’s no other country in the world that’s going to be able to figure out like we can, we’ll use this opportunity, we’ll use the situation.”

Yes, we will.

To some, for the moment, we’re veering a ways from capitalism.

But the billionaire thinks that’ll be short-lived:

“We’ve had a taste of socialism right now…giving money and redistributing wealth… But, I think we are truly going to see the best of capitalism when we come out of the other side, because this is where people are going to be entrepreneurial.”

I believe he’s right.

We’ve all heard of the American dream. If it hasn’t been alive and well up ’til this point, Mark Cuban has a message: Buckle up.