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Small Business, Big Fable (the myth of small-business job creation)
Washington Post ^ | 7/8/2009 | Steven Pearlstein

Posted on 07/08/2009 7:32:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Edited on 07/08/2009 8:24:05 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

One of the most enduring lies in American politics is the myth of small-business job creation.

You probably know it by heart: Small businesses create 60, 70, even 80 % of all the new jobs in the USA.

Back in the 1980s, I was a senior editor at Inc. magazine, where I worked on some of the articles in which some of the seeds of this myth were planted. Up to that point, there was a widespread tendency to conflate the success of the economy with the fortunes of big business, so it was rather useful to have some data highlighting the importance of small firms.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: jobcreation; jobs; smallbusiness; unemployment
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1 posted on 07/08/2009 7:32:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

So let’s tax them out of existence and use the money to bail out businesses “too big” to fail.


2 posted on 07/08/2009 7:34:01 PM PDT by Rodebrecht (What are you and who do you want?)
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

Washington Post utterly deceitful Obama Administration propaganda.

Obama preparing the sheeple for a massive tax and hyper-regulation assault small business.

Another Marxist thug assaulting the kulaks.


4 posted on 07/08/2009 7:35:21 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
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To: SeekAndFind

Interesting, but a planted idea-directing article, imo. Meant to support the federalization of big and middle business and to excuse the oncoming tax and regulations which will destroy many small businesses.


5 posted on 07/08/2009 7:37:23 PM PDT by bvw
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To: SeekAndFind

>> This is not the time or place for long statistical explanation.

TRANSLATION: My argument is flimsy, my logic is flawed, and I really couldn’t back up my outlandish BS if I wanted to. So I’m not going to try.


6 posted on 07/08/2009 7:37:36 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Stop dissing drunken sailors! At least they spend their OWN money.)
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To: FormerACLUmember

I’m quite wary when reading anything out of the compost or cnn these days. I read things from these sources with an eye to trying to peer under the cover, searching for the underlying rationale for their placement of these stories, and what agenda it is intended to resolve, or be a harbinger for.


7 posted on 07/08/2009 7:38:08 PM PDT by C210N (A patriot for a Conservative Renaissance!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Small Business = mostly non-union = not fully Dem = enemy of WP


8 posted on 07/08/2009 7:39:32 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: SeekAndFind
The author of this completely dishonest steaming pile of Obama Administration propaganda.


9 posted on 07/08/2009 7:40:01 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
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To: SeekAndFind

Pearlstein sounds like he just another one of Obama’s eunuchs. He needs to try to get out of the office more and regain touch with reality.


10 posted on 07/08/2009 7:40:15 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Hey America! How's that "hope and change" thing working out?)
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To: C210N
I’m quite wary when reading anything out of the compost or cnn these days. I read things from these sources with an eye to trying to peer under the cover, searching for the underlying rationale for their placement of these stories, and what agenda it is intended to resolve, or be a harbinger for

Absolutely.

The issue is not this propaganda disguised as news, which is 1000% dishonest and untrue.

The issue is: What is Obama trying to set us up for?

11 posted on 07/08/2009 7:43:04 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
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To: Nervous Tick

Exactly.


12 posted on 07/08/2009 7:43:57 PM PDT by Jagdgewehr (Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Requiring all of them to offer health insurance wouldn’t put any firm at a competitive disadvantage — it would simply raise costs for all of them,

It would cause the total amount business they do in aggregate to decline (basic supply and demand), which in turn will cause some of them to fail. Do you really believe you can raise prices with no adverse affect as long as you do it uniformly? Or is this still the author's reasoning?

Business owners are always quick to claim that they can’t raise prices because of competitive pressures, but if that were true, prices would never rise.

Fundamental socialist fallacy. Costs only determine which businesses survive and fail. Costs do not determine prices. Prices are determined by supply and demand.

13 posted on 07/08/2009 7:50:35 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: SeekAndFind
Who's Steven Pearlstein?

(I don't want to give the Post a hit)--

14 posted on 07/08/2009 7:55:00 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: SeekAndFind
This argument, of course, is 100 percent Grade A hooey, beginning with the myth of small-business job creation.

OK, let us summarily grant the author's premise that small businesses do NOT account for 60%+ of jobs, and that such numbers are exaggerated.

How does this premise justify his bombastic assertion?

Where is this author's more correct estimate of the number of jobs within small businesses?

If it were 1% or less, maybe that would justify his conclusion. But there is a heck of a lot of room for significance under the 60% line.

On top of this, his argument that many small business jobs are just displaced big business jobs due to health care costs seems down right counter to his own conclusion because it demonstrates health care costs are indeed significant to business, and thus to the economy.

15 posted on 07/08/2009 7:57:22 PM PDT by AndyTheBear
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To: FormerACLUmember

Requiring all of them to offer health insurance wouldn’t put any firm at a competitive disadvantage — it would simply raise costs for all of them, forcing them to pass those costs on to someone else....
Apparently this guy has never heard of China or India. This ‘it hits them all so what’s the problem?’ argument was the UAW line for 30 years. How’s that working out Steve?


16 posted on 07/08/2009 7:59:10 PM PDT by Old North State
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To: SeekAndFind

Hmmm, I guess that makes it OK for Obama and the lib-nazis to put them all out of business so that everyone has to be a slave to Obama.


17 posted on 07/08/2009 8:02:11 PM PDT by gorilla_warrior (Metrosexual hairless RINOs for hopey-changey bipartisan-ness)
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To: Nervous Tick

Great translation... Why a crock.


18 posted on 07/08/2009 8:03:26 PM PDT by ReleaseTheHounds ("The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.")
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To: Rodebrecht

The German Nazi Party sought to ban small businesses , but I’m not sure if they ever got around to implementing it, having to deal with the Russians and all.


19 posted on 07/08/2009 8:04:02 PM PDT by Boiling Pots (Barack Obama: The final turd George W. Bush laid on America)
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To: Boiling Pots

Makes sense. National socialism was a variety of corporatism, which integrates he interests of large businesses with the state. From his actions since becoming president, Obama is a new breed of corporatist.


20 posted on 07/08/2009 8:08:31 PM PDT by Rodebrecht (What are you and who do you want?)
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