Lets create some jobs.

How do we create jobs? An olde fashion tax break for small buisness should do it.

I heard this in Obama's state of the union speech. I heard this in every campaign where the economy was front and center. We have heard this for a long time. Cutting taxes for small buisnesses helps the economy and creates jobs, and for all I know that is true but I don't know.

What I am thinking is what about making the playing field between the small and big companies level. Here is what I mean.

"...fast food chains have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsides for "training" their workers...chains have for years claimed tax credits of up to $2,400 for each new low-income worker they hired...new jobs were part time, provided little training, and no benifits...Fast food restaurants had to employ a worker for only four hundred hours to recieve federal money - and then could get more money as soon as that worker quit" or was fired "and replaced." It is worth noting that if you assumed a 40 hour work week that person only had to work 10 weeks, a little more then 2 months. That is a lot of money we the tax payers shell out every time a fast food employee is hired, and with the very high turnover rate in the fast food industry that becomes a lot of money very fast. If that kind of money was put in to subsidy programs for small businesses you might see fewer national fast food chains littering every exit on the interstate and a few more locally owned diners and rest areas.

Here is another one.



Did anyone ever see the movie Wal Mart The High Cost of Low Prices. There is a scene in there where this owner of a local ACE hardware talks about Wal Mart was given tons of subsidies to build and expand the plot of land they wanted to put their store on. To keep up the owners expanded their store to offer more to the community and not only did they not get any help with construction costs but also got hit with fees and other infrastructure upgrade costs that Wal Mart never had to deal with.

What I am saying here is that if small business is so important to the growth of our economy then why does our government hand out tons of subsides and tax breaks and tax loop holes to the biggest companies. Small businesses already have a hard time competing against the giants of industry, toss on some unfair subsides and you have a struggle that small businesses will be hard pressed to make it through.

Eric Schlossen, Fast Food Nation, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York NY, 2001 Pg. 72