Not everyone has the skill set, knowledge or ability to start their own business. You also need some sort of seed capital. A 35 year career with a retirement is a nice back stop for an attempt to go it alone.
As for most people born after 1965 a career of five year intervals at a succession of companies with varying degrees of success with companies that offer few if any benefits is far more likely than a 35 year single company career and a retirement plan in private industry. Something we can thank the one way ‘open’ markets of Most favored Nation Status for China and one way free trade deals that have decimated American industry.
“Not everyone has the skill set, knowledge or ability to start their own business.”
I don’t agree... Walk down main street and into the first 50 businesses and you will find probably probably none that are run by somebody with an MBA, or in my case an engineering degree. Just ordinary folks... 12 will be run by a fifty year old woman who speaks broken English.
“Something we can thank the one way ‘open’ markets of Most favored Nation Status for China and one way free trade deals that have decimated American industry.”
The number one driver to take US jobs offshore is our government. Within walking distance of the US border in Mexico you’ll find a row of American companies that can’t conduct business in the US but who sell all of their products there. One that particularly caught my eye was called American Plating. You can’t buy or even handle the chemicals they use daily inside the United States.
My company had to deal with a city, county, state and federal EPA. Any one of those inspectors can find an unidentified puddle on the floor and shut you down instantly. One of the inspectors (can’t recall which EPA)was a fresh out of college girl who had apparently never been in a big manufacturing plant. She was a raving paranoid who just KNEW we were doing something that would kill all the whales (or something) if she didn’t shut us down. She was terrifying. The company president scuttled around like a Japanese serving girl personally getting her the answers to her questions.
Then, there’s the IRS which is indistinguishable from the Mafia. They can swoop in, seize your bank accounts and make you sign a statement that you’re guilty of something and agree to pay the fine. (I’ve seen this happen.)