Good Bye to the once great American middle class
Posted on 01/28/2015 9:34:29 PM PST by george76
When small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born, so is free enterprise,” writes Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup. “And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.”
For six years, the number of small businesses closing has exceeded the number of businesses starting. The number of business deaths exceeded births in 2008 for the first time in US history and has gotten worse in the ensuing years. Since 2010, the rate of small business closures has increased.
In the 1980s, the number of new businesses exceeded those closing by more than 100,000 every year. Today, 70,000 more businesses die than are started each year. This somber fact goes a long way to explaining the current weak job market. Two-thirds of all new jobs are created by small businesses.
...
A few years ago, I had an idea for a small business. It wasn’t a flashy tech start-up or a potential billion dollar idea, but I thought it would meet a need in the marketplace. Things were preceding well until I met with lawyers. The amount of regulatory and legal clearance that was required convinced me to bury that idea deep in the ground and never speak of it again.
I doubt my experience is unique.
...
All the rhetoric out of the White House or the halls of Congress can’t arrest this American decline. Small business is literally dying in the United States. By the time the media or the political class notices, it will be far too late.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I posted this days ago, no one see's it or gets it (See link below).
My CPA friend is wigging, it will be a nightmare for them and small business and be barrier for even thinking about opening one...
Sears owns them.
K-Mart blew it with Martha Stewart's line of housewares and Rosie O'Donnel, imho. The former had limited appeal (ugly colors, for one), the latter alienated a huge customer base by jumping all over Tom Selleck over the NRA. Gun owners boycotted, and that meant a huge revenue loss (K-Mart was the largest retailer of firearms at the time). People, being creatures of habit, once they don't go in to your store for a reason, will likely not be back for quite a while, if ever.
Which has been the Marxists' objective from the start. The poor are malleable dependents, and the wealthy can be broken using obscure regulations if they fail to toe the line.
Amazon isn't as sure-fire savings as it used to be. For one thing, even when you pay for prime shipping (supposedly free) the items are priced at what non-amazon sellers are selling at including their shipping. I've seen plenty of items in the last year or so cheaper in stores than on Amazon. What Amazon is doing for some of us is making goods available that no longer are in the rural areas.
The big problem with all businesses is lack of demand, because people don't have disposable income. All those companies reporting great earnings quarter after quarter? If you look closely, you'll see most are reporting 'ex-items' - excluding items that are costs, supposedly non-recurring. It used to be illegal to report earnings 'ex-items' without also reporting actual earnings (often negative). Now, no one cares about the law - the news media just wants to report happy news, to keep those Keynesian Animal Spirits up. Very few businesses are doing well at any level, unless they get government to force their competitors out of business through regulation...
I've no disagreement with that. But (if I may) I think Alberta's point was that, at least in the short term, the loss of small business jobs (including both small business owners and employees) can be "made up for" in the U1 stats by hiring by big business or gov't. What doesn't show immediately is the dynamism in the economy that having many small businesses brings, and even more so, the "character" of the country.
Perhaps I am not stating this well - Alberta probably can say it better than I can, early in the morning & still a bit groggy! :-)
“I wonder how many businesses out there (I’m leaving drug dealers out of the mix) are doing most or their business through black-market and gray-market transactions.”
Well, its kind of hard to tell. They don’t advertise. A couple of articles I found:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2013/03/19/america-black-market-growing/
bump
For a crazy woman who couldn’t write according to so many of her critics she sure nailed it didn’t she?
“Things will likely get even worse.”
I hate to be so cynical, considering that over thirty years ago I was one of those who was optimistic enough to start a small business and it provided my living for twenty years or so until technology changes killed it but I honestly cannot think of one good reason to disagree with you.
It won't matter if out Krazy Kongress Kabuki puts up a big fuel-tax like they're talking about and the fuel prices go back up.
In fact, if diesel hits $5/Gal [Avg] we can kiss our shipping goodbye — and we'll see the prices of needful items skyrocket.
Good Bye to the once great American middle class
Its over $6.50 a gallon in Britain right now. And thats a lot less than it was. But your point is well taken. The scumiticians will tax the hell out of fuel. Because they can. And because its easier to chase down.
Taxes are really whats driving the amnesty thing as well. Here we have a population living on the edge of the economy that seems to be doing just fine. The scumiticians want to tax them. So they want to give them an incentive to be part of the official economy. Hence amnesty.
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