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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

American Dream Should Include Hope For The Needy

Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Revie

Most business entrepreneurs, the National Federation of Independent Business contends, “are not chasing the Almighty Dollar as much as you think.”

Far be it from me to disagree.

To the contrary, decades of covering business have taught me that the average owner of a small business is no greed merchant. No ogre. Indeed, he or she, like most of us today, finds it harder and harder just to earn a living - unlike so many big corporations.

But then, too, unlike giant gold-plated corporations, the top priority of most little operators is not the bottom line.

Indeed, a survey conducted by the NFIB, which styles itself as the nation’s largest small-business lobby, reveals that profits come low on the list of motives cited by owners for entering business. Atop the list, reports an NFIB press release, are: Self respect, sense of accomplishment, family security, independence.

No surprises there.

“For many,” says the NFIB, “business ownership is a form of economic and social self-expression like that exhibited by artists or writers or composers.”

Of this, I have no doubt. And had the NFIB stopped there, subscribers wouldn’t be reading this column.

But the business lobby just couldn’t resist taking a poke at the defenseless in order to help pitch its service of peddling political influence.

“America’s free enterprise system,” pontificated the lobby, “is not based on government-provided security but rather on the freedom to follow one’s dreams, beliefs and ideals.”

Even this nasty dig at the needy I could have let pass. But then these hucksters pretended small businesses was being picked on for making a profit. “They are not money-grubbing capitalists who exploit their workers,” wailed NFIB, “as the anti-business, pro-government crowd would like everyone to believe.”

Pure demagoguery.

“Those who begrudge the small-business owner a profit cry out for such things as a higher minimum wage and greater benefits,” the NFIB class-war mongers fumed. “But what they really are seeking is redistribution of wealth from those who have the ideas and take the risks to those who are not so inclined.

“Small business must make a profit to survive,” the NFIB shrieked.

Trickery. Inflammatory rhetoric calculated to make high-priced lobbyists indispensable to small business.

Workers don’t begrudge small business a fair profit. Such scare tactics only sow dissension and undermine mutual problem-solving by employers and employees.

The NFIB ought to be ashamed. Strident posturing can only hurt small business - not help. It gives Main Street a bad image it doesn’t deserve.

Because if - as NFIB so righteously preaches business success demands elimination of the safety net for millions in the most-desperate need, then free enterprise is failing society. And God help America.

Just where do fat-cat D.C. mouthpieces get off gushing trash that goads small businesses into turning their backs on those unable to make their own way because they are too young, too old, too crippled, too ill, or otherwise incapacitated.

“Profit is not a bad word,” blusters NFIB. “Ask not those who own and run profitable businesses, but ask employees and families who enjoy the benefits of those profits. They share the dream, too.”

Indeed they do, and the big-lobby silk suits had better start to realize that workers are part of the dream. Just like small businesses are part of communities, not the patsies of political opportunists who profit from driving a wedge between Main Street and the working class.

A “great pool of untapped indignation” exists today, Labor Secretary Robert Reich warns corporations basking in riches while refusing to share with workers.

The whole world knows working-class wages have stagnated for two decades. But stocks scale new heights, big-business profits soar, and executive bonuses rocket into the stratosphere. Is it any wonder that employees earning sub-welfare wages equate the “opportunity society” with corporate greed?

Surely this is not the image that small business has earned or desires in the community. In my humble opinion, Main Street is being manipulated and misrepresented by the NFIB lobby to serve its own selfish ends.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review