Why the hell do small businessmen think they're better off

[Jackpine Radical]

under Republican rule? Dems are much better for small business, while the Puggies do a good job of serving their megacorporate masters, who really don't want small business competition.

Consider, for example, the consequences of a single-payer health plan that doesn't depend on employer contributions. A lot of people are prevented from launching entrepreneurial ventures by the need to keep a job in order to keep themselves and their families insured. As any small-businessman who has had to buy insurance for himself and his employees can tell you, the big guys can negotiate low rates with the insurers simply because of their size (larger risk pools, more negotiating power). A single-payer plan would take this inherent advantage of giant corporations off the table. It makes me crazy that more small businessmen don't seem to realize they would be better off with us in charge.

Likewise, wars are seldom good for small business (except for the few that "win the lottery" and get military contracts).

People who know more about this issue than I do should put together some of this kind of information & start recruiting the entrepreneurs. If the national Chamber of Commerce organization ever gets itself straight and free of the corruption at the top, we ought to be able to convert the whole bunch.

[leftofthedial]

1. it is true that small businesses do MUCH better under Democratic government

most small business owners I know seem to be knee-jerk anti-government, anti-tax, anti-social-program neolibertarians. The repukes appeal to this mindset with their rhetoric. Their policies though, as we know, are usually the opposite of what they say, repukes being congenital liars.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Exactly.

They all think they're General Electric or something. Why can't we educate them?

[dorktv]

3. everyone does better under Democratic rule...

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Yup. Take veterans, for an example. The Dems pass all the

veterans' benefit legislation, & the majority of vets vote Republican 'cause it's the macho thing to do.

[dorktv]

10. talk speaks louder then actions until the actions are too obvious.

[BR_Parkway]

5. As a small businessman, can I ask you to not lump us all in the same

pot?

I realized about a decade ago the Repugs weren't for me, that I did better when the Dems ran things. There are many small biz owners here (there's even a dedicated forum for us right here at DU). Many of us chafe at all of the government intervention in our lives (I personally spent 5 hours today doing sales tax reports) so we tend to respond to a politician saying they're supporting small biz and will get the gov't off our backs. But after studying the issues for a few moments, it becomes very clear that 1) they're politicians and will pander to any group to get their votes, while doing the work of the big corporations who fund their campaigns and 2) most of them really don't have a clue what a small biz is in this country so they wind up being very ineffectual in making changes that benefit us.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. I'm a small businessman too.

And it seems to me that a lot of the paperwork that seems so onerous to small guys is no burden at all to the big corps because it reflects the way they would be doing theri record keeping anyway.

And, yes, government doesn't always do stuff right, and we need to have some kind of feedback system to ensure that gov't policies are actually effective & don't impose unnecessary hassles & hardships.

[treestar]

19. Agreed, and sometime on DU one gets the perception that

everything ought to be thrown onto employers, enforcement of immigration law, tax law, and child support laws just for starters, as if all employers are big companies with endless resources.

People who work for big companies and collect paychecks and never tried to run a business tend to overlook the concept of new businesses being created and competing with the big guys, and inadvertently argue for situations where the big guys are the only legitimate employers - the only ones who can afford to keep a business going.

The main cause of business failure is lack of capital - so much capital in the form of money and time gets sucked up in all the government related requirements meant to protect the public from those of us evil enough to try to make our own living.

And when you expand to be big enough to actually create jobs, that's when you are big enough to comply with a hundred new government mandates and demands. One wonders how many jobs have been lost through the inability of the business to have enough capital to expand, which it would have had but for all the restriction and regulation which appear sometimes to be the idea of the huge multinationals, knowing they can just comply and that it therefore gives them an advantage over any would-be competitor struggling to grow.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Sportsmen are another group who have been brainwashed

by the Puggies into thinking the Dems oppose their interests. Everytime I see one of those Sportsmen for Bush stickers I wanna case the guy down & start yelling "What the fuck is wrong with your brain?"

[sandnsea]

7. Some single payer plans depend on employers

The general amount I've seen is 6% and it is a tax on employers. Between that and a minimum wage increase, for instance, that's another $400 a month per employee. Then there's the FICA, unemployment, worker's comp, and sometimes retirement and life insurance. It adds up. I think if Republicans could, they'd just axe all of that. So if you're a small business person who thinks like that, you're going to vote Republican. Not to mention the environmental, OSHA and other government regulations. Then there's occasions where you have to implement new technology to work with your suppiers, or just to be competitive. Then sometimes you find out the government itself is your biggest competitor. It's very difficult. I do think Democrats have good selling points for small business, but sometimes I don't think the grassroots Democrats fully understand what small business has to deal with.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Please note that I specifically suggested

"a single-payer health plan that doesn't depend on employer contributions."

I do in general think your comments are on target.

But environmental regs can end up creating a need for new technologies, thereby boosting the economy, which s always good for small guys. Unless maybe you're running a repo business.

[sandnsea]

13. I agree

Oregon tried to pass a health plan that was pretty much single payer and it relied on employer taxes, in part. Theoretically it would have been cheaper than private insurance, but that's hard to discuss when they're telling you private worker's comp is cheaper than govt at the same time. So anyway, it failed. There's another plan they're going to try to get through the legislator next year, that expands a subsidized family health insurance program we already have.

I also agree about the new technologies, etc., but I don't think we talk enough about them. The left is still tree-sitting, while others have created eco-friendly certified wood, for instance. We have to make sure we have a solution-oriented voice out there too.

I was just laying out what small business has to deal with, in one shot, to add to the info for everyone.

[Redstone]

8. I have a small business, and I do NOT think I'm better off when the Repubs

are in charge. I'm smarter than that.

Redstone

[DURHAM D]

12. What's up with the gender bias?

I am a small business owner - but not a business"man".

I spent most of the day working on issues related to the cost of medical coverage for my employees. Of course I know that the only chance for relief on this issue will come from the Dems.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. Sorry--force of old habit. Had my brain been in a higher gear,

I would have de-genderized the post.

[catzies]

15. "To live like a Republican, you gotta vote Democrat."

But Eisenhower was right & the military-industrial-complex was our undoing.

[David Zephyr]

16. I'm part of the petite bourgeoisie that Marx wrote about...

a small business owner.

Believe me, my business (tech) soared under Clinton and the Democrats and has suffered under the Republicans.

You echo my frustration with small business owners who are fooled into thinking that what's good for the mega corporations is good for them.

I threw a solicitor for the National Chamber of Commerce out of my lobby telling him to go pimp somewhere else.

The national Chamber of Commerce along with the National Association of Manufacturers are toadies for the the big corporations and off-shore child/slave labor.

[MGKrebs]

17. It's a legend. A myth. Part of the collective subconscious by now.

So many people just accept these subliminal ideas withou thinking about them or questioning them. Big companies have P.R. departments that try every way they can to show themselves in a good light. Many people are left with the impression that corporations can do no wrong. If it's good for Citibank, it's good for us all. (On the other hand, if a government spent money on P.R., there would be tea in the harbor over the wasted tax money.)

I recommend subscribing to Fortune Small Business magazine and write letters to the editor responding to articles with stupid assumptions about what is good for business.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. I recommend that we get our own experts

to write articles for the small business pubs. Ditto for sports mags, etc. Time to start fighting back with the truth.