Why should you take the risk to start a company? After all, the government provides food stamps, wealth redistribution from the rich, and even toys like cell phones. See this little video clip. And if you do get a job, it should be with the government, and you definitely should join the union to help you protect the income from that job.
So why start a company? Seriously. Fifty-five percent of small business owners say they wouldn’t start a company today. See this article.
Well, that thinking is completely wrong-headed. I can think of many reasons you should start a company, even in today’s turbulent time. Here are just a few:
1. When the government runs out of money—and it will, it’s just a matter of time—people without jobs and those people working for the government will be cut off. They’ll be at the mercy of cutbacks that will be forced on the government by its creditors. See what’s happening in Greece, and Spain. Only people who can set their own salaries will be able to survive above poverty. And only business owners can truly do that.
2. All those people who do not work or who work for the government produce nothing that society really wants, even though those people all have income to spend on things. So unless someone has a company that produces goods and services those people want to buy, what good will their money be? Do you think they will be able to buy only stuff made overseas? Yes the US trade deficit continues to increase, partly because we are forced to buy more and more foreign goods. But that cannot continue forever. When the dollar becomes worthless—which it will, it’s just a matter of time—Americans will be able to afford to buy only goods made in the USA. See the history of Argentina since their crisis for how that story goes. All this means that our country needs you to be a business owner.
3. The more politicians do to help the middle class, the more the middle class will shrink. By middle class, I mean people who work for a living at some job for a company and not the government. Politicians have been telling you for a long time that you need to vote for them because they are for helping the middle class, but in the next breath they tell you that the middle class is shrinking. The only logical conclusion is that politicians hurt the middle class. It’s not hard to see how that happens. Money will flow only to poor people and to government workers on the one end (the first constituencies of politicians: government dependents who then are incentivized to vote for the politicians), and to people who can set their own prices, i.e. business owners on the other end (people who have learned how to take care of themselves). Working middle class, those who depend on someone other than the government or themselves, will be squeezed completely out of existence.
4. You will be paid handsomely for making stuff consumers politicians want. So don’t go into the business of supporting efficient energy production like coal or oil or gas. Instead, go into politically favored industries like batteries for electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines. Oh, if your company is under-priced by foreign competition—which it will be because Americans love to impose regulations on everything done in America with the hope that those regulation will guaranty nothing bad will every happen to anyone—you might still win by getting politicians to subsidize your company. You know those stories.
So, in the modern American economy, you must take care of yourself. Actually, that has been true for all of human history, but recently many people have been lulled into thinking that the government will take care of them. Since that is demonstrably false, you simply must be involved in your own business. But you will not be completely free of political constraints. You will still get only what you bargain with politicians for. Government is the only growth industry.
Bet against government at your peril. Use government to your advantage. But above all, take care of yourself by running your own company. It’s the only way you’ll survive in the modern American economy.