[ehvatum]

What SMB has the luxury of being notoriously unproductive? Economies of scale are very real and tend to make larger businesses more efficient, it's true, but you'll find that causes SMBs to be lean and mean to remain competitive.

[cm2012]

There are many many ways to look at this data, but here's one: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pr....

Bigger companies can pay a lot more because they are more productive. And further research has shown its the same pool/type of people at each.

[ehvatum]

Your implied point that prices will drop with the introduction of interstate competition and access to finance and interest by mega-corps is well taken. You are certainly correct, there.

Notwithstanding grey-market limitations, people have their motives for accepting the inefficiency of starting or staying small. Potential, for example.