Health care, loans, SBA, job creation … have you noticed that the public discussion on all of these business-related topics is very far off base? Doesn’t it seem like the talking heads choose sides first, then recite talking points? And that the result is no real communication or discourse, because it’s all predetermined. Tell me what the pundit said and I’ll tell you which side he’s on; which uniform he wears. 
Funny, everybody in government is in favor of small business. Words and phrases like “job creation” get used so much they’re diluted of all meaning.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, you and I are getting into the office early with a large cup of coffee every day, answering phone calls, following up on projects, and while these issues affect us in the long term, we have too much short term–and too much business-specific work–to allow us time to even look into it.
So I was browsing NYTimes.com online Sunday when I caught Robb Mandelbaum’s piece called Obama Talks Up Small Business, Again on his You’re the Boss blog. It seems like a decent piece of journalism, summing up the latest small-business talk from the White House. What struck me about it, though, was not the content but how much I find myself agreeing with this comment, from someone who uses only his first name (Doug) and says he’s a small-business owner. He said:
- This is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue. I am WEARY of the fighting–neither party shows it cares about anything but winning and staying in power (or regaining it.).
- As soon as a person brings up Pelosi or Reid or Obama or Limbaugh or Beck or Cheney–that person LOSES the argument by showing they are not an independent thinker but a follower of the hamster wheel of politics that keeps spinning, keeps getting you worked up emotionally, but never gets things done.
- Give American small-business owners the freedom to be entrepreneurs and they will supply America with innovation, jobs and new tax revenue.
I agree.
(Photo credit: Marynchenko Oleksandr/Shutterstock)
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
