I suspect you're the exception rather than the rule, Paul. Checking the numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the percentage of self-employed workers in the economy has FALLEN from 10 percent of the workforce in 1968 to 8.5 percent today.[1] Fewer people are working for themselves, although you're right that the 1980s seem to be when things started to change.
[1] http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab9.htm -- only stats on unincorporated single-owner businesses go back to the 1960s, but the stats on incorporated single-owner businesses don't show any significant change over the last 10 years, so it seems hard to argue that Americans are really more entrepreneurial now and those numbers just aren't catching it.
I really don't know. They wouldn't capture multi-founder startups, but it's probably a fair proxy for degree of independent entrepreneurialism that Paul's talking about.
My reason for asking, is that most small business started over the last decade have been LLCs. If the stats are only tracking corporations the data could be extremely skewed.
[1] http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab9.htm -- only stats on unincorporated single-owner businesses go back to the 1960s, but the stats on incorporated single-owner businesses don't show any significant change over the last 10 years, so it seems hard to argue that Americans are really more entrepreneurial now and those numbers just aren't catching it.