Ever since Joe Plumber's Lonely Hearts Club Band came out this week, experts and pundits have popped hamstrings to sprint out and remind us that "small businesses are the backbone of this country!!!" And, much like when we're told the same thing about small towns, we reflexively nod our heads and think "Yes, how American."
But, if this is true, if small businesses really ARE the "backbone of this country", does that mean it's necessarily a good thing? Didn't our economy seem to have it's shit together a lot better back when we were a country of LARGE companies...pumping out cars in Detroit, IBM, huge manufacturing companies employing thousands of people etc etc, before we shipped them all overseas? Are we actually better off when we're a country of large companies?
I have no idea if this is right or wrong; I'm sure two experts could chime in with two different point of views and be right. Or maybe I'm just flat-out wrong (always possible.) But I don't think we do ourselves any favors by knee-jerkingly accepting such views of small business and small towns being the backbone of the country without wondering if the opposite may be true.
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