You know the single best thing we could do for small business and entrepreneurship?
I’ll give you a hint. If you’re going to run your own business as an adult, what’s the first consideration? Particularly if you have kids. It usually involves your spouse and what they do for work.
Universal healthcare.
It’s the biggest burden on entrepreneurship, so much so that you generally need a spouse to have benefits. And it’s a huge burden on small and medium businesses.
The major groups against universal healthcare include large corporations, because it’s another barrier to entry for competition, both in their market and for potential employees. Unions are against it because healthcare is one of the few things they’ve negotiated for. And of course the healthcare industry doesn’t want the money sink to dry up.
Absolutely. Tying healthcare to work is insane, and it definitely hits new businesses the hardest
Going further along the same lines, UBI plus removing the minimum wage would be jet fuel for businesses, especially small ones
People like to work. They’d do it even if all their needs were met already. It’s not a hypothetical - people who have more than enough often keep going until age catches up with them. It gives social status and purpose, we’re wired to create or to help others.
What people don’t like is to be exploited or mistreated. Many people would happily work with little or no additional pay to build something as a group, so long as their conditions are good and they share in the success
The threat of poverty not only stifles innovation and societal progress, it’s by far the largest stressor for most people. Removing it would make people less exploitable, but also make them healthier and more productive
It’s not as simple as “cut a check and you’re done” - this is assuming the UBI is enough for basic needs, and by that I mean decent housing, utilities (including Internet), healthy food, etc
Obviously, if you give everyone money tomorrow, companies would just squeeze everyone harder. Housing especially - done wrong it could just all go into the pockets of landlords
But I think it’s a self reinforcing structure and a solid goal. If we limited the commodisation of housing and continued pushing the FTC in the current direction until it’s regularly breaking up tech and financial giants who go too far, I think in a couple decades the playing field would have shifted enough that we wouldn’t instantly backslide
I don’t think it’s the best end goal or ideal method to get there, but it seems like the most achievable one. It plays into the myths of capitalism, it still allows for obscene wealth, and it keeps the game going (hopefully) meaning it’s a feasible step without tearing everything down and attempting to build a new system all at once
You know the single best thing we could do for small business and entrepreneurship?
I’ll give you a hint. If you’re going to run your own business as an adult, what’s the first consideration? Particularly if you have kids. It usually involves your spouse and what they do for work.
Universal healthcare.
It’s the biggest burden on entrepreneurship, so much so that you generally need a spouse to have benefits. And it’s a huge burden on small and medium businesses.
The major groups against universal healthcare include large corporations, because it’s another barrier to entry for competition, both in their market and for potential employees. Unions are against it because healthcare is one of the few things they’ve negotiated for. And of course the healthcare industry doesn’t want the money sink to dry up.
Yep. Investing in our citizenry is the most fiscally responsible thing we could do.
There’s nothing conservative about greed. Nothing at all. Just another Republican lie.
Absolutely. Tying healthcare to work is insane, and it definitely hits new businesses the hardest
Going further along the same lines, UBI plus removing the minimum wage would be jet fuel for businesses, especially small ones
People like to work. They’d do it even if all their needs were met already. It’s not a hypothetical - people who have more than enough often keep going until age catches up with them. It gives social status and purpose, we’re wired to create or to help others.
What people don’t like is to be exploited or mistreated. Many people would happily work with little or no additional pay to build something as a group, so long as their conditions are good and they share in the success
The threat of poverty not only stifles innovation and societal progress, it’s by far the largest stressor for most people. Removing it would make people less exploitable, but also make them healthier and more productive
There are more ways for this to go wrong than right.
It’s not as simple as “cut a check and you’re done” - this is assuming the UBI is enough for basic needs, and by that I mean decent housing, utilities (including Internet), healthy food, etc
Obviously, if you give everyone money tomorrow, companies would just squeeze everyone harder. Housing especially - done wrong it could just all go into the pockets of landlords
But I think it’s a self reinforcing structure and a solid goal. If we limited the commodisation of housing and continued pushing the FTC in the current direction until it’s regularly breaking up tech and financial giants who go too far, I think in a couple decades the playing field would have shifted enough that we wouldn’t instantly backslide
I don’t think it’s the best end goal or ideal method to get there, but it seems like the most achievable one. It plays into the myths of capitalism, it still allows for obscene wealth, and it keeps the game going (hopefully) meaning it’s a feasible step without tearing everything down and attempting to build a new system all at once