The American Corporatocracy

The estimated 29.6 million small businesses in the United States:
* Employ just over half of the country’s private sector workforce
* Hire 40 percent of high tech workers, such as scientists, engineers and computer workers
* Include 52 percent home-based businesses and two percent franchises
* Represent 97.3 percent of all the exporters of goods
* Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms
* Generate a majority of the innovations that come from United States companies
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2009
Small Business Survival Rates

Small Business Openings & Closings in 2008:
* There were 627,200 new businesses, 595,600 business closures and 43,546 bankruptcies.
* Seven out of 10 new employer firms survive at least two years, and about half survive five years.
* Findings do not differ greatly across industry sectors.
Sources: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2009

Down With Big Business - Paul Ryan, 12.11.09,
How the government is smothering dreams and stifling growth.

The Anti-Corporate GOP?
What happened to the party of business interests? - By Peter Suderman
Newsweek Web Exclusive - Oct 28, 2009

The Hound believes that small business is the backbone of America, yet we have created all of these barriers to entry that are making it harder and harder for small business entrepreneurs to initiate a business and secondarily to survive.

A frequent cause of small business bankruptcies is undercapitalization. There are a lot of great entrepreneurs out there with fabulous, innovative ideas; but we are regulating these people to death. Whether as primary or secondary costs, expressed or hidden, these regulations cost money. Think of all of the great businesses that have been started in a garage, basement, or backyard workshop. Is that even possible today? can you start a business on a shoestring budget?

Corporatism is a big problem in many aspects. A corporation is an institution that is granted a charter recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members. These entities allow individuals to operate in a manner that small businesses cannot. It allows individuals to take more risks in the name of the corporate entity, that they will not be liable for in the event of business failure.

The largest companies can afford the lobbyists, the legal teams, and political contributions that allow them to massage legislation and manipulate the system in their favor. In many cases this has been done at the expense of small business and it has inhibited their ability to compete, grow, and prosper.

I certainly don't want to kick big business in the teeth. Businesses that have been around and have a history deserve to enjoy what they have worked hard to build. But, we have seen too many times where big business will step outside of their realm to squash businesses that might compete with them in the future.

Look at how the Big Oil companies lobbied legislative bodies for years to keep alternative energy companies from developing. These companies would not have been directly competing against Big Oil, but they may have competed for energy dollars in the future. Now Big Oil has turned into Big Energy and they are lobbying to get legislation passed that they were against 20 years ago. That is 20 years of wasted time, where entrepreneurial growth lost out to the marriage of Politics and Big Corporations. Folks, that limits the growth of our nation, that keeps our country from developing and transitioning into what it potentially can be.

I am not however saying that we need to protect Mom and Pop to give them a leg up either. We see it all the time on the local level, where Small Business people are peddling influence with their buddies to obtain special favors for their personal business at the expense of others. No, what I am talking about is a fair shake and equal protection under the law for all citizens.

As the citizens of this nation, we need to demand the end of lobbying and influence peddling in our governmental bodies. This is the root cause of the lack of leadership and bad legislation coming from the government. It is wasting money that matriculates through every part of our financial system and is passed on to consumers and the citizenry. We also need to put a stop to the revolving door between government and the private sector. I talked about it in this article Goldman Sachs' Treasury - The Biggest Conflict of Interest Ever from October 2008. Tell me, what has changed?

I personally believe in globalization and foreign trade. And if what was promised would have been delivered, then we would be in a much different situation today. Instead, we saw the vote buying and influence peddling create Least Common Denominator deals that helped the Corporateers and Washingtonians loot the treasury and fleece the American people. We need to have people who will demand fair trade or no trade. We need capital to foster creative endeavors to move forward, but where is the money that was supposed to facilitate that path? It's padding the pockets of the Wall Streeters.

Today, people either think the average government official is a lying scoundrel or is telling acceptable distortions of the truth; and that is all based upon their personal Republican-Democrat ideological paradigm. Hardly anyone feels they are being told the truth straight up. Everything has to be spun. We are at the proverbial fork in the road. We have built a system that lacks credibility and integrity. It is time to get back to basics or meet our demise. Which path will we take?