07.05.07
Declaration For Small Businesses
During the course of human events, power and wealth often become concentrated in the hands of a small subset of the population. When they are allowed to have inordinate influence in the governance and economy of the land, this becomes self-perpetuating. At this point, the unscrupulous and dishonest begin to have long-term prosperity and the honest, hard-working, and productive become a permanently subservient class in that society.
This evil, when it occurs, must be firmly and quickly corrected, lest society collapse from within. When the rewards for hard work go solely to the wealthy, then employees and others who are not wealthy begin to curtail their output. Society in general begins to suffer.
In some countries, without a long tradition of using civil means for seeking change, disorder and violence are the result. We thank God we have not had that here.
We, the people that own, work for, and aspire to own small businesses here in the United States of America hold these truths to be self-evident:
- That smaller, locally-owned businesses provide more jobs to more people than the big corporations
- That smaller, locally-owned businesses are more involved in their local communities, providing not only money, but time, skills, personnel, leadership, and advocacy for the needs of local non-profits, educational institutions, individuals, and local government agencies
- That locally-owned businesses and locally-based workforces are more likely to be concerned and involved in economic, social, and political situations in their communities and to share the local perspective on relevant issues
- That locally-owned businesses are more likely to stay in a community during a downturn, being better neighbors than huge corporations that come and go as their own interests dictate
- That local government and residents need to be aware of the benefits that come from locally-owned businesses and to seek out locally-owned suppliers for most of their needs
- That locally-owned businesses provide local jobs for local residents and that therefore choosing to patronize locally-owned businesses brings beneficial employment (with its social and economic effects) to their local communities
- That many of the pressing social issues we face today are partly effects of the preference for large, out-of-area corporations over locally-owned businesses
- That solving these pressing social issues will necessarily include overturning the preference for large, out-of-area corporations in favor of supporting the locally-owned businesses that have the strongest incentives to help solve these problems
Therefore, we request that local governments (city, village, town, township, borough, county, parish) and state governments work to prefer small, locally-owned businesses for all of their outside spending and simplify their purchasing and contracting processes so that smaller, locally-owned businesses can more easily meet their requirements. We request that our leaders turn down special requests by large corporations that may have adverse effects on smaller, locally-owned businesses as well as local residents. We request that our leaders turn down election campaign funds from large, out-of-area corporations and publicly announce which ones attempted to use their money to influence the course of local events.
Small businesses are not all led by the dildoes that resent any proposal to improve life for working Americans and local residents. While we have limits on what we can afford, there are many so-called “small business coalitions” that are secretly funded by large corporations that are trying to avoid their paying their fair share. They will fight any requirement in the name of “protecting small businesses from burdensome regulations,” while they secretly export more jobs to overseas workers without our system of legal protections. While smaller, locally-owned businesses are crucial parts of the tax infrastructure, many large corporations work the backrooms and play the loopholes in order to avoid paying taxes.
Ignore these ersatz small business coalitions and talk to individual small, locally-owned businesses in your own communities.
Instead of spending thousands or even millions of dollars to attract out-of-area corporations (which somehow wind up expecting tax incentives that are paid by increasing the taxes on local residents and the smaller locally-owned businesses that are already supporting the area), spend economic development funds helping to train and finance the local entrepreneurs that will hire your local high school graduates and help out in your local elementary schools. Instead of trying (generally unsuccessfully) to attract large, out-of-area corporations to invest in our inner cities, decide on a strategy that places the creation and building of smaller, locally-owned businesses at its core.
Do these things not because they benefit us, but because by benefiting us they also benefit the individual residents and citizens that live in our communities.
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Tags: politics, small business, independence day
