WASHINGTON, D.C. May 6 (DPI) – Business creation in America is at its lowest in three decades, according to recent think-tank report, suggesting that the nation’s economic malaise with persist and – according to many reader posts – a more regulated, risk-averse business culture is setting in.
The report by the moderate Brookings Institution was picked up by a former employee, Christopher Ingraham, who now writes a blog for The Washington Post. He wrote:
If the decline persists, “it implies a continuation of slow growth for the indefinite future.” This lack of economic dynamism, particularly the steep drop since 2006, may be one reason why our current recovery has felt like much less than a recovery.
Readers of his blog posted more than 500 comments this afternoon, many of them spewing anger at Washington and the people in political power, particularly the president.
The Obama War on Success and War on Business are finally achieving what they intended. Tell me again how you can attack business with taxes and regulation, not to mention income redistribution, and then be clueless about why not many jobs are being created and our workforce is shrinking?
One comment gave a balanced and insightful take:
The free market created by the United States Constitution is what created the middle class. Feudalism and Mercantilism is why people left Europe and other continents to come to America. Before America there were only the very wealthy and the working class. This is our current trajectory.
Since the early 1900’s a progressive movement has shifted from the free market to the government shaping the market. FDR ramped up the government with numerous agencies to put price controls and numerous regulations distorting supply and demand. This trend has continued upwards since then by both political parties.
Sadly, most people don’t understand what a free market really is unless they study economics – Friedman, Von Mises as opposed to Maynard Keynes. No economy exists where there is no production. If you don’t produce anything, there is nothing to sell. All the high wages in the world won’t mean squat.
Regulations often start with companies wanting to squeeze out the little guy, but congress has to have something to sell. In exchange for campaign money they sell tax exemptions, regulations by the EPA, Bureau of Agriculture and so forth. Many people think its fine to tax corporations, but the silly thing is the consumer or the wage earner pays the taxes, not some nameless bureaucracy. As long as Congress can sell regulations, the individual will be squeezed out. Change the tax code to a flat tax, get rid of some of the bureaucracy and watch the economy boom. This is the law of nature and cannot be changed by man.
We need our country back. Entrepreneurs are the engine of productivity and innovation. It is the entrepreneur not the government that create cures for diseases and other things that make our lives better. We can have government make all the choices in the world for us, but when the chips are down, I wouldn’t wait for them to save you.
The story was picked up by other outlets. USA Today pointed out that the Obama Administration is pushing fewer regulations leading up to the midterm elections: