[joshstrange]

pulls out soapbox

> There's no reason a normal business cycle should "ruin" normal people that did not take excessive risks.

And this is why I get so frustrated when I hear things like "Well business owner(s) take all the risk so that's why they get all the reward (profits, or most of it)". Bullshit. For smaller companies this is more-so true but not even then is it always true. I'm not sure how many downturns or mistakes have to happen followed by layoffs for the general public to grasp this but I don't anticipate people wising up anytime soon. In a number of these layoffs we hear about "Well we misjudged the market" or "The trends didn't continue the way we thought and we over-hired". Instead of tightening their belts (less profit for owners/shareholders) the answer is always to just jettison people until the books "balance".

I own my own (side) business and I have family members who own full-time businesses, I'm well aware of the risk (and debt) we have taken on but for larger companies the top brass (and shareholders) seem nearly completely insulated from any pain. Compare that to places that have profit sharing with employees which can go down if there is a downturn/etc, this is a much better way to handle it. I'm fine sharing in the risk (which I'm doing just by working for someone, they could fire/lay me off tomorrow without warning, that's a risk) if I'm also sharing in the reward. I'm also fine with the "reward" (profit share) decreases in "bad" times versus laying off a bunch of people. Some companies do this much better than others but I really wish companies were either forced to share the rewards and/or actually feel some pain when they make bad decisions. I think we all know the people responsible for over-hiring don't actually face any repercussions for their mistakes, instead it's the people they hired then laid off. And no, paying severance or feeling bad about having to lay off people isn't really "pain" in my book.

Having a "better social safety net" is sort of a way to force "profit sharing" in a roundabout way and I would greatly appreciate it if losing a job didn't mean loss of healthcare and/or a way to put food on the table, pay rent, etc. I know from personal experience that having a good safety net (aka, my parents) makes a huge difference. Not that I play fast and loose with my money (I have an emergency fund that I could run on for 6-9+ months that I've built up) but you always have a little voice in the back of your head saying "You aren't going to end up on the streets". Not everyone has that and I'd love nothing more than for everyone to experience and have that confidence, it's what allows you to take risks (sane ones ideally, like starting your own business) knowing that failure will not ruin you.

puts up soapbox