No need for government: Small-Business Owners can Fix the Economy

Misaki

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2011
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This applies to all sizes of businesses but small businesses traditionally have a much higher rate of job loss and gain, despite having a relatively small share of the total number of employees in the US. Half of employees in the US are at firms larger than 500 workers, the same corporations that have been making record profits since the start of the recovery with very little of that money going to salary increases or new jobs.

What business owners can do to help the economy is simple, and in line with management practices to improve product quality and production efficiency since the "scientific management" of Taylor and Ford and the human relations movement that followed, but instead of just money as the incentive there is the bonus of being able to choose to spend less time working.

While this might sound completely counterintuitive — we work to make money, after all — in a 2010 poll 76% of percent of employees said they were willing to take a pay cut, and a convincingly made [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc"]animated presentation[/ame] talks about how poor of a motivator money is once you have enough of it.

This is true for employees at both ends of the income curve, but due to supply and demand only low-paid workers can easily be found to fill a job position. Business owners can take advantage of this by treating these positions as flexitime with an additional small hourly component for time spent working beyond the minimum amount. Anyone who chose to work beyond what the business required would be paid at less than their average rate.

Just to be clear, this would mean that a full-time worker would make less than they do now. Time up to the weekly minimum would be paid at the normal rate, but the rate would decrease after that point. Flexitime workers use the normal overtime rules in the US, but by having a flexitime minimum that's smaller than 40 hours per week with a lower compensation rate past that point a business could hire enough workers that no one would ever need to work more than 40 hours per week.


If one business did this, they could expect...
- Higher efficiency at work
- Lower wage costs
- More flexibility in schedules due to larger number of employees
- Lower income for employees, but more free time

If many businesses did this, they could expect...
- Lower unemployment
- Fewer available workers and higher wage costs for the industry, which could be passed directly to customers such as the super rich


The value of time should not be underestimated. Even a couple with a modest income of $450,000 per year complained about having to spend $60,000 of that on private school and child care, which would have been unnecessary if they had the time to take care of their children themselves.

Further reading:
 
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With out "demand" even small business owners can't make it.

Something so simple to understand.
 
With out "demand" even small business owners can't make it.

Something so simple to understand.
Who creates more demand, an employed worker (even if they're only working 30 hours/week) or an unemployed worker who has run out of unemployment benefits?
 
With out "demand" even small business owners can't make it.

Something so simple to understand.
Who creates more demand, an employed worker (even if they're only working 30 hours/week) or an unemployed worker who has run out of unemployment benefits?

If they are working 30 hours a week, then they are not "unemployed". Perhaps you might reconsider your post. As is, it's inane.
 

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