Small business myths: HRC 61/100
27 September, 2016 | Index
Dear Hillary Clinton,
Gerard Mclean here, from Englewood, Ohio, just north of Dayton. This is the sixty-first letter of one hundred I am writing you on health care; one for each day between your nomination and your election. The previous letters can be found in your USPS mailbox or online at 100HRC.com
This is not entirely about health care, but it is all related, so I’m just going to share with you and we’ll see where this ends up.
At the debate last night, I heard a familiar trope about how small business creates jobs, helps America out of a recession, blah, blah, blah. As a small business owner, I disagree. While the numbers may indicate causation, that we are leaders among job creation, fueling the economy when it slows, etc, the numbers are the tail wagging the dog. Here is what I see.
Small business doesn’t create jobs from some patriotic duty or sense of community. As much as we all want to be that noble, the tax code and bankruptcy courts just aren’t all that empathetic.
We hire, we create a job because we have customers. Period. We can’t afford to invest in massive R&D or create a product hoping to fill a market. That is the stuff of tech-bro hero Hollywood movies. When we hire people, we are heroes, but when the money runs out, we are deadbeats and crooks. The local media will nail our uninsured, desperate, do-gooding butts to a wall!
Right now, we’re not seeing customers on the horizon. The ones we do, all want discounts because their insurance costs are increasing, along with ours. Expanding the ACA needs to include SinglePayer, MedicareForAll, UniversalCare. It is good business; it allows us to hire good people and gain customers who won’t have to hammer us on price because they can’t afford what we sell and they want.
I’ll continue this thread in another letter. There’s more.
Regards,
Gerard McLean
cc: Sen. Sherrod Brown
61/41
