Innovation Plus Job Creation = National Self-Employment Initiative

Washington is awash in rhetoric about the importance of America's small businesses as engines of economic recovery, but there is little to no action coming out of the policy arena to help these businesses actually fuel economic growth. Instead, they have been largely left out of the policy discussion when it comes to the president's American Jobs Act and our national debt.

It's politics as usual, as the fight over the president's jobs bill leaves America's unemployed and underemployed wondering if Washington actually gets it. Our policymakers like to claim they want to help the small business community, but don't take action to back it up. The economic outlook for our nation's smallest businesses -- the self-employed and micro-businesses -- is bleak even if we avoid the threatening double-dip recession. Giving small businesses the support they need to turn things around should be a top priority that rises above party politics on Capitol Hill.

Too many of the current policy proposals are focused on what Washington sees as the job-producing class -- the wealthiest Americans -- who are clearly not creating jobs with or without generous incentives. We need a national self-employment initiative to help America's smallest businesses survive the current economic turmoil and help some of the nine million people who are out of work.

What should this national initiative entail?

First, the initiative should prioritize simplifying the tax code and creating tax parity for self-employed businesses. When President Obama proposed his jobs plan before a Joint Session of Congress, I suggested:

"The president and Congress can start by making the tough decisions. The tax code is a good place to start. Self-employed business owners need to be CEO, COO and head of sales as well as their own accountants. They don't have the luxury of big business accounting departments that can manage the complicated and ever-changing tax system."

Second, direct small business financing to start-ups and the self-employed. Access to capital is crucial to the growth of new firms and micro-lending is especially important to help bolster the self-employed.

Third, foster entrepreneurship education in secondary schools as well as colleges and universities. Make starting a business a viable career option for our young Americans and teach them the skills they need to turn their ideas into profitable businesses.

Finally, assist all states in launching self-employment training programs for residents. These training programs should be available free to all unemployed citizens providing them with an avenue to create their own job, should they be unable to find one.

These long-term policy solutions are a recipe for innovation and job creation, two concepts that everyone in Washington should get behind.

 

Follow Kristie Arslan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nasetweets

Comments

[edmundavolio]

06:59 PM on 10/06/2011

A lot of huff and puff, but not one concrete proposal to create jobs in the US. What a waste of peoples time to listen to such posturing. The real problem is that the US has imposed tariffs on domestic production that can easily be avoided by offshore countries. One sure remedy is to have congress repeal all tariffs they have placed on US manufactured products. Another sure remedy is to have congress bar from sale in the US, any product made offshore that is not made with the same tariffs as imposed on US producers. Some of these US tariffs are: a minimum wage of $7.25/hr., environmen­tal and safety laws, workers comp costs, SS and Medicare co-pays and child labor laws.

[kilgourtrout]

06:12 PM on 10/06/2011

If you want to enable small business startups, give all Americans health care, and make it affordable. The other benefit to single payer health care, besides balancing our budget and making our people healthier and more productive, is that a national health care program would allow tens of thousands of people to start businesses. My personal experience as an entrepreneur : started a tech company with 1700 dollars and ended up with a company that did 50 million dollars in sales over a twenty year period, trained numerous workers, and paid a lot of taxes, didn't receive one tax subsidy from any government entity. When I turned fifty years old, I projected private health care costs for fifteen years as my core employees were all about the same age. After looking at those numbers, and coinciding with GWB stealing the White House, I came to the conclusion that private health insurance costs and diminishing coverage would most likely make for diminishing returns on investment.

So, I took a couple of years off and became a federal employee, to protect the wealth I accumulated through years of owning a small business. I have great health care, I'm secure, but I'd really rather be running a small business. How many middle aged or nearing retirement people are out there who have the knowledge and experience to start a successful business, but won't, given our predatory health insurance industry ? I would guess many, many thousands. And they have their own capital.

[edmundavolio]

07:00 PM on 10/06/2011

You cannot enable small business with 20 million unemployed, with more coming.