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by bestcoder69 1280 days ago
Eludes me why anyone ever gives a shit about small businesses. The crucial difference is that some local family owns the shares, rather than a bunch of people? And this is what we have to protect, at the cost of not being able to implement rules in our economy? If that’s the case, they’re holding back progress and it’s good when one goes under.
2 comments
Majromax 1280 days ago
> Eludes me why anyone ever gives a shit about small businesses.

Because today's small businesses can become tomorrow's large businesses. Each new rule is a barrier to entry. Here, for example, zero-contamination rules for sesame would make it impossible for a small business to make both sesame-containing and sesame-free products unless they can afford an entirely separate production line or long deep-cleaning periods between runs. Large business, large enough to have simultaneous production lines, can rearrange production more easily to avoid disruption.

With a large-enough regulatory fortress, incumbent businesses protect themselves from competition, losing that very "progress" that you champion.

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nottorp 1279 days ago
> Each new rule is a barrier to entry.

To explain barriers to entry, consider that right now you can choose between an iOS phone and an Android phone and nothing else. Try to imagine how much it would cost to write a 3rd OS and kickstart a useful app store (you'd have to bribe devs to port their stuff, and not even that worked for Microsoft).

That is an extreme barrier to entry.

If you're not careful, you'll end up with one or two options for everything.

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bestcoder69 1279 days ago
There's more than one way to progress! Reducing start-up capital requirements by tearing down regulations is one, sure. Other ideas:

- Govt subsidizes new businesses with capital/staff/what-have-you so they can comply

  - ...and to steal a libertarian arg against welfare: charitably-minded private citizens could do the same :)
- Expand social safety net so private businesses don't have to provide the same for their employees, freeing up capital for compliance

- We can just deal with a higher threshold starting businesses... like honestly what _is_ the proper threshold here? Are we even optimal now? Lots fail and ruin peoples lives, when honestly maybe it's better for those same people to go work at a successful business as a manager.

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sokoloff 1279 days ago
Around half of all workers work for small businesses.
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smegsicle 1279 days ago
are workers for large businesses even people?
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