The white elephant in the room is deregulation. Deregulate America
and it will work. Right now I can't sell lemonade on the street corner, I
can't make knick knacks or wood works and open a stand. I can't rent a
booth at popular city events without taking out a million dollar insurance
policy. I can't walk down the street and sell my wares without first
registering for a permit. They don't have the myriad of regulations (or
the enforcement thereof) in other countries where free enterprise is
flourishing, or at least providing hope to the starving and disadvantage.
The only way America comprehends working and enterprise is in the form
of big business. If I want to start a business, first I have to write a
business plan, do the research, copyright it, patent it, and then spend
months trying to find investors who will listen. I have to schedule
meetings, make phone calls, all to pursue an idea or wait years before I
get a return, or to get the customer count back up to a point in a small
neighborhood business, before I can pay back the loan I had to mortgage my
house on.
Instead imagine if people could survive by selling their weirs.
Imagine if I could make cakes or bake bread and start selling it on the
street corner to stave off my poverty and hunger. Imagine if I could make
a better plastic bag holder and test it out on a few people to see what
they think and perfect the design. Even more, I've actually attempted
small scale manufacturing of electronic devices, appliances, house hold
tools and tried to sell them one at a time to see what people wanted and
where to invest my resources. I could get terrific feedback on what to do
and how to improve the products before borrowing money. However, often,
this test marketing phase is illegal. There's UL approval, health
department regulations, EPA certification, permits, insurance policy,
registration, and its just not worth it to find out if the public will
accept the product I'm trying to sell.
I'm constantly hearing liberal talk radio addressing the pillaging of
America by big corporations and they're right, but the intentions of
conservatives aren't to take down big business, but instead they're trying
to reopen the doors for small business. The deregulation Regan promoted
was not targeted at big business but for working people. Unfortunately
corporate conglomerates took advantage of the new business model and
packaged up American manufacturing for overseas. The media, and therefor
the public, does not distinguish between big business and small business.
If we could somehow regulate corporations but not small business we would
see economic recovery in America.
The solution might be as simple as managing our resources. Resources
like coal, gas, water, wind, forests are too often monopolized by
corporations who disregard the public welfare. Maybe if a company was
pulling something out of the ground like natural gas or coal, and if they
had to answer to a different set of rules than the small business
operating in the suburbs, we might find economic momentum.
Granted we need regulations to protect the public, but the public has
been protected to death starving while all our jobs are shipped overseas.
I'm just sayin.
kb
kbushnel.sdf-us.org/contact.html
"I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is
the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has
going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is
nothing. It's really tragic." Marilyn Monroe
"The fascism of numbers." Anita Roddick on NPR's Morning Edition show
saying something to the effect she was glad she and her friends who
started the Body Shop didn't go to business school otherwise they would
have been indoctrinated with the fascism of numbers.
