How do you respond?
What about small businesses, ever think about them?
Joseph Hill
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Nathaniel Fisher
Every large business was small once. The system is the problem, not the particular evolutionary stage in which a capitalist enterprise is in.
Chase Hughes
slaves to the banks
Benjamin Sanchez
Most small businesses get absolutely crushed by dominating powers in the market and get taken over.
Nicholas Sanders
Just lie and say I don't give a shit about businesses of a certain size because burgers have a hard on for small business. Basic political strategy and pragmatism. Take power first, then you can worry about small businesses later.
Owen Howard
They still haven't figured out that a flat corporate tax hurts the less wealthy more.
Jose Robinson
...
Carter Jackson
Why would I not want rid of small business too? Stop the cancer early. Unless it's a family or co-operative venture then workers will still be exploited by them. Most small business would simply become the next bastard monopoly if they got the chance, where do you think the current huge corporations started?
Aaron Moore
I have no problems with small businesses as long as they don't employ anyone
tho soviets allowed employment of up to 10 people
as long as small business stays small, there's no point in gulaging it
in general, I like how soviets dealt with private businesses if they were becoming a pain in the ass
they simply bankrupted them, overtaxing their ass, blocking their access to credit, and reducing prices on the competing products of the state sector
those sweet tears of the entrepreneur
are delicious
kek
Gavin Foster
...
Joshua Fisher
The guys on Street Fight Radio call small business owners Small Business Tyrants and it's true. I have heard nothing, but awful things from people who have worked for small businesses. Often a faceless corporation will have more respect for their employees than a small business.
Angel Gray
My answer to small businesses:
youtube.com
Cameron Mitchell
I believe this discussion should be seriously entertained by socialists, as opposed to pleas on behalf of CEOs, investment bankers, etc.
Large sections of the petty bourgeoisie can and will become revolutionary during the fall of capitalism; therefore, the petty bourgeoisie, unlike the ruling capitalist class, can be considered open to radicalization.
Matthew Hill
This. Megacorps can be seriously hurt by bad publicity, they're more likely targets for labor inspections, they can get their ass sued for millions if they try to fuck over their workers too openly, etc. Small businesses will get away with abusing their employees way more easily because that really doesn't affect them as much. Plus, go ahead and try forming a union within a SME…
Connor James
A million small businesses count for nothing.
A few giant corporations count for everything.
Robert Wilson
REMINDER THAT THE SMALL BUSINESS MEME GETS SPREAD BY VENTURE CAPTIALISTS WHO REALIZED THEY CAN PUSH ALL THE WORK OF ORGANIZING A BUSINESS AND GETTING IT RUNNING ONTO THE PROLES, LETTING MOST OF THEM FAIL MISERABLY SO THAT THE ONES THAT TURN AN OK PROFIT OR ARE GOOD FODDER FOR SPECULATORS CAN BE EXPLOITED BY INVESTORS FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY=
Bentley Thomas
Small businesses are often lauded by liberals and other assorted capitalism-with-a-human-face apologists as an alternative to much larger corporate entities. Even among those who considers themselves more radical leftists, it is not rare to see people give a pass to some "family-sized" stores or restaurants by contrasting their business practices with those of Walmart.
But should they, really?
A set of specific problems are associated with small business. The boss often pays even lower wages and stretches even longer working hours, outright disallows unionization, uses emotional bullying through direct hierarchical cohabitation with employees, etc. Even their "fair trade" or "organic food" gloss is often bunk, as small farms often hire undocumented workers and make use of very polluting pesticides all the while pocketing tax breaks and subsidies.
They're no more "ethical" than big business, they simply lack the scale that makes megacorps intimidating. Speaking of which… What's interesting with large and influential companies like Google or Amazon as of late is their radical embrace of labor-saving technology like advanced automation and cloud computing, which allows for increasingly high productivity all the while requiring less and less human effort. They're basically exacerbating the contradictions within capitalism and ushering the technical conditions for a post-work society.
Don't small businesses stand in opposition to that? Don't their tiny capital, reliance on archaic equipment, embrace of "authenticity" as part of their corporate identity, etc make them tend to resist highly productive and efficient labor organization? I'm not an accelerationist by any means, but this seems like a good reason not to cry over the disappearance of mom & pop stores — their continued survival is by now nothing more than a smiley-patterned band-aid on the social cracks of late capitalism.
Nathan Robinson
i swear i've heard Zizek make that same point but i don't remember where
Dylan Williams
Damn, if you find it, I'd love to see it.
Lucas Watson
He did, but I don't know the source. He was basically saying that because the boss of a small business has a more personal relationship with the employees, they can more effectively guilt them into working longer hours or whatever. To put my own spin on it, the danger of capitalism with a human face is that it can make the workers feel sympathy for it. By the owner of the business being just a small timer "like you", it makes you feel bad about slacking off as opposed to when you work for Giga-Corp who makes more in profits than most GDPs.
Parker Myers
Also Small Business is any business with less than 500 employees or less than 7.5 million in revenue per year depending on which industry.
Samuel Cook
That would be in his Vice interview.
Liam Collins
(It's around 5:20)
Carter Martin
1) There's nothing particularly more virtuous about small business over large business
2) Even if small business somehow was more virtuous than big business, it barely controls any capital and isn't worth slowing the wheels of progress for
3) Almost all of the people who cry big crocodile tears for muh small business when it's attempts to improve working conditions or environmental standards are noticeably silent when big chains and multinationals crush small business (if they don't outright cheer the multinationals on).
Leo Myers
I webM'd that bit. Vice is shit don't give them views.
William Torres
nice la
Aiden Brown
Fug. Forgot to enable audio.