Why the Government Hates Small Business
When it comes to business, size matters.
If you’re a small business — or solopreneur — you have a distinct disadvantage over big corporations.
There are the obvious disparities. Corporations have deeper pockets, bigger ad budgets, greater economies of scale.
But the biggest advantage of all is the political leverage big corporations have that small businesses don’t.
This political leverage can be used to crush competitors. All it takes is the flick of the pen by a Congressman who’s caved into lobbyist pressure.
Here’s how one author puts it in his article No Jobs:
You see, the truth is that over the past several decades the game has become dramatically stacked in favor of large businesses. Big corporations have the money to lobby Congress and other governmental institutions, they get almost all the tax breaks and they are the only ones who get bailouts. They even “help” write legislation on the federal level.
Many times large corporations will even lobby for more regulations for their own industry because they know that they can handle all of the rules and paperwork far easier than their smaller competitors can. After all, a large corporation with an accounting department can easily handle filling out a few thousand more forms, but for a small business with only a handful of employees that kind of paperwork is a major logistical nightmare.
For proof, look no further than the proposed tax increases that would target individual service providers — but not corporations with more than three shareholders!
Although I haven’t researched it, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the new law had been encouraged in part by corporations trying to “stick it” to their more nimble competitors.
But big corporations don’t always go after small business. Believe it or not, UPS is currently trying to get a law passed designed to hurt their biggest competitor — FedEx. Check out this quick video…
The bottom line is this:
No business should be able to use the long arm of the federal government to club their competitors. It should be illegal for any business to get special advantages from the government.
Giving businesses the ability to lobby the federal government encourages bureaucracy, bribery, and all kinds of high-level shenanigans — none of which actually improves the business itself or makes it more competitive.
If big businesses focused on continuous improvement rather than gaining unfair legal advantages, we’d ALL be better off, consumers and small business owners alike.
What do you think?
-Ryan M. Healy
