In the March 2016 edition of The Atlantic , author James Fallows wrote an article asking the question, “Can America Put Itself Back Together?” It took him 14 pages, but his answer to his own question was an unhesitant “Yes.”
His was a journey, mostly by air, across the lower 48 to search for his answer. He visited mostly small towns (cities that do not have major league sports teams), such as San Bernardino, CA, Duluth MN, Redlands, CA, the “Golden Triangle” of Columbus, Starkville, & West Point, MS, Holland, MI, and Sioux Falls, SD (and others.)
He reported how small businesses are providing the economic Renaissance in America. He writes:
John Dearie, a co-author (with Courtney Geduldig) of Where The Jobs Are, argues that new business formation is the single most important guide to future employment trends. This is because of the unlikely sounding but true economic observation that, over decades, all the net new job growth within the U.S. economy has come from firms in their first five years of existence (and mainly from fast-growing ones in their very first year). Big established firms…employ a lot of people. But the increase in jobs, overall, statistically comes from new firms, as they go from no employees to the first dozen or hundred.
America’s economic renaissance rests on a foundation of companies that are innovative, independent, and competitive with one another. Taxes and regulations should allow these companies to exist and thrive and not be concerned with fighting off manipulative tactics from larger firms.
