A Negative Column About Small Business Development

To find a column deriding small business development in Wisconsin and the U.S., you need look no further than Madison's unapologetically liberal Capital Times newspaper. Mike Ivey's column today is entitled "What's the Big Fuss About Small Business?".

Ivey starts out by observing that large companies such as Sam's Club and Bank of America have ad campaigns that emphasize how they aim to help small business, and Ivey opines that this is ironic because both have done a lot to put small businesses out of business and swallow up their market share. I find this to be a valid observation. But then Ivey goes on to call entrepreneurship part of the "neo-conservative agenda of personal responsibility" (Ivey apparently has a distaste for personal responsibility). He "lump(s) 'small business development' right in there with Health Savings Accounts, privatized Social Security, 401(k) accounts and all the other components of the new 'sink or swim' America." Ivey goes on to imply that governments promote small business development to avoid responsibility for the loss of other jobs. Ivey refuses to acknowledge that large business relocation in the areas of IT and manufacturing is part of today's economic reality, or the need for and value of new (and often small) businesses in America replacing those jobs.