Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Of the 5.6 million businesses in the U.S., 99.7% of of them are “small,” most just Ma & Pa running a restaurant, bluecollar service, or some other shoestring enterprise. The owners work long hours with few vacations, and barely get by, if they do at all since half of small businesses fail within the first year. Unfortunately, as hard as being in business is, somehow these striving entrepreneurs are saddled with society's obligations as well as their own, probably because they have no voice in government: they're too busy working and don't have any money.

Our broken democracy votes to make Ma & Pa pay for government's obligations: who has to pay Minimum Wage, not government; it's Ma & Pa. They often don't make Minimum Wage themselves, and work way beyond the protected workweek, but are held responsible for these things for any employees they hire. An employee wants maternity/paternity leave; that's on Ma & Pa's back. Unemployment insurance: it's them, though they have none for themselves. Social Security & Medicare: Ma & Pa pay twice as much as their employees, and have to chip in half for their employees, but they don't get any themselves. If society wants perks for its workers, society should pay for it, not Ma & Pa because Ma & Pa aren't your ma & pa.