View Single Post
  #15  
Old 05-22-2015, 12:57 PM
Tom Joad's Avatar
Tom Joad Tom Joad is offline
Persona non grata
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 12,654
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueStreak View Post
I laugh when I hear "The small businessman is the engine of the economy."

No, he isn't.

The small businessman only exists because others in his community have the means to utilize his services/products. If the bulk of his neighbors simply struggle to survive due to weak wages, the small businessman suffers.

Example;

Some sort of valuable resource is found. A mining company comes to sink a mine and brings dozens of skilled miners with them. Initially, the mining company sets up temporary housing, but the desire for home ownership and other goods and services arises. If the workers are well paid, there will be more demand and more money to be spent at that level. Ancillary businesses will spring up to feed into this demand. Home construction, grocery stores, gas stations, etc., etc.......... More people, more business for the smaller businesses.

Now, take away the strong wages at the mine. Everything else suffers.

The economy slows, the town slowly dies.

You can talk about what "SHOULD" happen all you want. That's what "DOES" happen. Large scale employers, providing high paying jobs and high quality employment are what built this country over the last 100 years or so. (Industrial Revolution) The guy with a few lawnmowers on a trailer is barely feeding his own family and creates high value employment for no one. In fact, he is not "independent", he is deeply dependent on the rest of us.

America will not remain great, depending on small business and low wages. It simply does not work.

Dave
Thanks for that dose of reality.

You are right of course.

The Dude that painted my house is lucky if he cleared $12-15 bucks an hour and he did a helluva job and worked his ass off. And he got sick for a while but was afraid to go to the doctor because he has no health insurance.

The Dude that has the little lawn equipment shop and who fixed my lawn edger dresses like Little Abner and drives a beat up 20 year old pick up that looks like it's ready for the boneyard.

The guys who worked on my roof didn't look any more prosperous than he did.

A few of the more successful small businesses I see around here have one or two family members that own the place that are living pretty good but their employees are lucky if they are making 25K-30K a year.

They all depend on people that make decent money at jobs with either government or big companies who can afford to pay them to do odd jobs for them.
__________________
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Last edited by Tom Joad; 05-22-2015 at 01:03 PM.
Reply With Quote