Archive: Opinions

Greece has a 75.7 share of employees working in small businesses of from one to 50 employees in 2007.  Italy has a 68.7 share.  The United States has a 34.1 share, according to a chart published by the Washington Post a few days ago.  The U.S. has a 52.7 share of workers in companies that employ 250 or more, while Greece has the fewest, at 13.  

So first the good news: America's economy is at the polar opposite of Greece's.  As you know if you follow these things the Greek economy is in very poor shape.  Many people worry Greece will default, causing a depression across all of Europe.  Greece even instituted a temporary property tax.  Good luck with THAT, Greeks!  If your government is anything like ours, that word temporary ain't what it says in the dictionary!

Other European nations have agreed to loan Greece 110 billion Euros, the equivalent of $150 billion in U.S. currency.  Even the U.S. Federal Reserve has announced it will provide unlimited three month loans to European banks.  Europe buys about 20% of U.S. exports, so we really don't want them to have a recession.  Having an economy that is not like Greece's is very good news.

The bad news is that the myth that small business is the happening place for U.S. jobs is... well, apparently it is a myth.  This is bad news for the thousands of Americans who are continually laid off from large companies.  And it puts a crimp in the piece of the American dream that says you can have an idea, work hard, form a small business, and be in the forefront of American economic (and personal economic) growth.

If you have tried creating your own small business you know the problems.  The paperwork is endless, the government wants a big cut -- they take it from your company and then they take more from your employees if you can afford employees.  New York State likes to fine small companies (and I have to guess big ones as well) for forgetting to put a zero on some line of the quarterly form even if you aren't making any taxable money.

Then there is health insurance.  It rises exponentially every year with such high deductibles that even if you have it you can't afford to use it.

Then there is the piece where the economy, despite pundits saying we're coming out of a major recession, is just plain lousy.  People can't afford things, they are losing their pensions, their investments aren't worth squat, and at the same time companies are buying less from each other.

Despite all that there was always the conventional wisdom that owning or working for a small business was the wave of the future, the happening place to be, a great next step for laid-off workers.But by the numbers the more successful economies like our own, Britain, Germany, Finland, Denmark, and France have much larger shares of workers working for 'The Man' than employed in small businesses.  Seems like now is a better time to try to hold onto your corporate job than to ditch it to pursue your dream.


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