Small Business
While I have had the pleasure of doing business with some large corporations in my long career, most of my experience is with small business enterprises, from startups and "mom & pop" companies to those with hundreds of employees and operations throughout the USA. My experience includes manufacturing, distribution, medicine, education, marketing, technology, travel, insurance and many kinds of services. Having been a self-employed business owner for 40 years, I have a keen appreciation for the economic issues that concern entrepreneurs and those who are charged with a responsibility to deliver results to shareholders.
Ask any business owner what propels them to hire more people and the answer is the same: growth. Whether it's more orders, customers, contracts, or the innovative R&D that precedes new products, new facilities and new markets … additional jobs are always a response to a business need, not the sudden consequence of a 4% tax break. Think about it: the real job creators in a capitalist economy are customers.
Without the government's ability to create infrastructure with investments of money and manpower, the private sector would be unable to focus itself on the products and services that inevitably result from research and innovation. Satellites and the Internet … paid for with our tax dollars … support thousands of conveniences that are considered essential today in the same way that the auto industry, travel industry and numerous others were made possible by the highway system built in the Eisenhower years.
It disturbs me whenever I hear the discourse and pandering that suggests that business and the economy would boom if only the government would "get out of the way." It's an applause line and a delusion. Yes, I have an understanding and awareness of the burdens felt by small business when regulations impose new requirements and standards that can be expensive or disruptive. But at the same time, it's unreasonable to expect companies to suppress their profit motive and police themselves. Building codes and occupational safety standards protect Democrats and Republicans alike. Seat belts and child restraints save Republican and Democratic lives. It has always been my experience that acceptable solutions can be devised by combining facts with common sense.
Let's communicate with each other and work together to avoid making the perfect the enemy of the good. It should not be impossible to strike the right balance that keeps small business thriving as the engine that propels our country's growth and prosperity.
While I have had the pleasure of doing business with some large corporations in my long career, most of my experience is with small business enterprises, from startups and "mom & pop" companies to those with hundreds of employees and operations throughout the USA. My experience includes manufacturing, distribution, medicine, education, marketing, technology, travel, insurance and many kinds of services. Having been a self-employed business owner for 40 years, I have a keen appreciation for the economic issues that concern entrepreneurs and those who are charged with a responsibility to deliver results to shareholders.
Ask any business owner what propels them to hire more people and the answer is the same: growth. Whether it's more orders, customers, contracts, or the innovative R&D that precedes new products, new facilities and new markets … additional jobs are always a response to a business need, not the sudden consequence of a 4% tax break. Think about it: the real job creators in a capitalist economy are customers.
Without the government's ability to create infrastructure with investments of money and manpower, the private sector would be unable to focus itself on the products and services that inevitably result from research and innovation. Satellites and the Internet … paid for with our tax dollars … support thousands of conveniences that are considered essential today in the same way that the auto industry, travel industry and numerous others were made possible by the highway system built in the Eisenhower years.
It disturbs me whenever I hear the discourse and pandering that suggests that business and the economy would boom if only the government would "get out of the way." It's an applause line and a delusion. Yes, I have an understanding and awareness of the burdens felt by small business when regulations impose new requirements and standards that can be expensive or disruptive. But at the same time, it's unreasonable to expect companies to suppress their profit motive and police themselves. Building codes and occupational safety standards protect Democrats and Republicans alike. Seat belts and child restraints save Republican and Democratic lives. It has always been my experience that acceptable solutions can be devised by combining facts with common sense.
Let's communicate with each other and work together to avoid making the perfect the enemy of the good. It should not be impossible to strike the right balance that keeps small business thriving as the engine that propels our country's growth and prosperity.