http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/opinion/13brooks.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks
And here is a comment (in the Highlights section of the comments) from Douglas of Minneapolis that I found very poignant. I have been thinking a lot about what the government could do to actually help people, and my basic thought is that they could make it easier to be in business for a small business or sole proprietorship, that is, to own your own means of production. How can the government help us? Those of us who have run small businesses know that starting even the most modest business is gigantic PITA. Why isn't there a "one day start your business" option for sole proprietors or small businesses? And why not dramatically reduced bureaucracy for this class of businesses if they adhere to certain standards, e.g. electronic filings and other productivity-boosters? The government is stuck in 18th Century French bureaucracy and they are drowing us. Add to that the fact that large businesses are daily cudgeling small businesses and individual workers with a variety of clubs (outsourcing for instance), and you have a playing field where it has become far too difficult to succeed on your own. comments from Douglas: ----- Vocabulary is the resolution of your thinking. We need to add "Distributism" to the vocabulary of public discourse in this country in opposition to Socialism and to Capitalism. G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc articulated this concept as an outgrowth of Catholic Church social philosophy (I am not a Catholic). Wikipedia throws out this quick definition - "According to distributism, the ownership of the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (state socialism) or a few large businesses or wealthy private individuals (plutarchic capitalism)." No American is comfortable with the government owning the means of production, but not enough people fear a small number of monolithic corporations who don't answer to anybody until things get very bad indeed, if then. Chesterton said "Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists." Big corporations are the fox in the henhouse of small business. They are the ones that can afford to lobby ceaselessly for legislative privilege, and who in the end stifle competition in the market. The unholy alliance between big money and big government in the US is characterized by the slick and the suited - people whose skills are in manipulating their position within a hierarchy rather than inventing a widget. They are not where economic innovation comes from, nor economic freedom. ------ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:323032 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
