Big Business

[Martin Hash]

I am a staunch supporter of small business, and government non-intervention in the lives of individuals who have risked everything to pursue the American dream. However, big business is another matter. “Big” business does not mean lots of employees and large gross revenues. In a managerial sense, big business is differentiated by its offloading of risk to public investors. The stock market is open to everyone, and as democratic as the proposition seems, where everyone has an equal chance to participate in the capitalist dream, in reality it results in a giant lottery where total novices are regularly fleeced by knowledgeable insiders.

Big business has their investors and their employees at the complete mercy of management. Their shareholders normally are powerless (even the “professionals”), obviously ripe for exploitation and abuse – exactly the kind of protections governments are supposed to provide its citizens. For the most part, government has performed this function admirably, and its regulation has been measured and effective. It is when political ideologs provide cover for unscrupulous “deregulation” that we get into trouble. Ultimately, government has little place in a family business, but is definitely needed to provide protection of stockholders and workers in public companies.