Crisis In US Entrepreneurship

[Kane]

[The Comrade]

give me an eigth grade reading level thesis statement

[Indy]

Melt? It's freakin 40 degrees here today!

Very well done.

You nailed on the second one the very first thing that came to my mind (assuming that many entrepreneurs are college graduates)--they graduate already so far down the whole that completely discourages risk-taking and innovation and instead they're getting a job... to pay off their loan. That's pretttttty messed up if you think about it. Not their pragmatism, but that's how f***ed our educational setup is here: go to college, pay for it using loans because it's not provided by your country and then go into such hoc that your post-graduate life is spent... worried about paying off that loan.

So who in their right mind coming right out of college is going to think: I'm going to roll the dice here?

You are also correct in that while our politicans (both parties) give constant lip-service to the beloved "small business owners," everything is skewed towards mega-corporations--all the breaks, the investment, the anti-competitive practices allowed when they buy off leaders to stack the deck. The small business owners I know will go on and on about the awful tax structure and this and that... and they don't get to hoard their earnings overseas.

Oh and just wait as Net Neutrality gets executed publicly and the Internet becomes, like everything else in this country, excellent for Those Who Have the Money.

[Saz]

Financial: Is this really bad? Do we really want average people leveraging their home equity to start a business that statistically, will fail quickly? I agree this is playing a huge role in suppressing entrepreneurship, but I think the argument could be made that it's preferable to a regime where credit is lose and anyone can borrow, regardless of the quality of their idea or their financial situation.

Psychological: ONE. WRONG. MOVE. The idea of America being a place where you can fail repeatedly is finished. No one thinks that any more except deluded boomers who did live in an America where one could afford to take risks without crippling their financial future. This is mostly the fault of boomers. They punish you for resume gaps, and view any time spent pursuing your own business as a waste unless it's big enough for them to co-opt for profit. I look at someone like myself, and if I took off a year or two to try and get my own business of the ground, my career would be finished.

Regulatory: This has nothing to do with anti-trust, and has everything to do with way to much regulation. Have you ever looked into starting a business in some states? It's impossible. Just about every solid idea dies on the vine when you start thing about things like liability or insurance.

One thing I think that never gets brought up is the role of healthcare in all of this. I wouldn't mind taking some financial risk at a young age to pursue a business or something. but I didn't bust my ass in school so that I can be 30 with no healthcare. The gamble of starting a business really becomes apparent when you realize you can start a great business but if you get sick before it takes off, you are f**k. Not just the business, you are ruined. I can't even think of being an employer trying to deal with healthcare for my employees. It's a huge burden we place on businesses and it locks many people into their current job.

[Indy]

[Kane]

[Mr.Bill]

Where I live 15 or so years ago there were 6 mom and pop hardware stores... Lowes and Home Depot moved in, now there's 1 mom and pop left.. Only because the 1 left is 10+ miles from Lowes and HD...

15 or so years ago there was 3 pet stores.. PetCo and Pet Smart moved in, now there are no mom and pop pet stores left..

Dozens or mom and pop restaurants and local bars are gone since the Olive Gardens, and Chili's and Applebees moved in..

Walmart? No need to go there..

2 huge Malls here... Not a single mom and pop store in either one, all franchise stores and restaurants..

These large Corps buying power can not be matched, their advertising budget is in the millions, they get tax breaks and perks from the local and state governments..

There's no way a small mom and pop business can compete with that..

[Saz]

Let's be clear here, Entrepreneurship is different from being a small business. I'm not sure why you guys just want to jump to something completely different.

[Kane]

[Mr.Bill]

Most likely if you are an entrepreneur, and start your own new business venture or service, chances are that start-up business is going to be a small, mom and pop type business..

You are going to have much more competition from the big boys nowadays then you did even as little as 20 years ago.