As a small business owner. Why should I become a socialist? What's in it for me?

If you convert your buisness to a workers co-op it'll be more productive.

thenation.com/article/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/

I have 4 kids to feed.

Nice edge.

Tell all your workers to kill their kids and don't have any more or you'll pay them even less. Their lives must center around making you money.

Under capitalism, you're teetering on the edge of failure and can get easily pushed out of the market once it becomes easy for larger competitors to provide a similar service in your location for cheaper. Socialism will remove the chance of failure saddling you with huge debt burdens and you can work significantly less for a good quality of life, which means more time to spend with your four kids.

Good! If your business is more productive, there'll be more money for food for your kids!

see

Free education, healthcare, paid parental leave, and childcare fam. You would also work less hours for more reward, giving you more time to actually spend raising your kids.

Under socialism (or an-com) the need and demand to 'become rich' is lowered because the price of everything is also lowered (obviously)

Many people ignore this fact

I only have two employees and pay them way above minimum wage, they have health insurance and other entitlements and benefits. They are happy employees and enjoy their job. Don't speak on situations you know nothing about.

How would my business operate differently under socialism?

Depends on the model, but unless we're talking market socialism it wouldn't be a business at all. It would be socially owned in some form or another, since you are already managing it you would likely keep that position, but would be held accountable to your workers and could be voted out. You and your fellow workers would decide on the day to day operation of the business while responding to production quotas or serving people as they need it (depending on what industry you are engaged in). The economic authority (which varies greatly depending on different socialist branches) would essentially act as a regulatory authority and also communicate production/service needs to you.

Just because your one small business is ethical and able to stay afloat doesn't mean that capitalism is a good institution. By that logic because I have food on the table no one is starving anywhere and there's nothing wrong with hording food.

Your flesh can feed livestock.

We don't care about your self interest.

Nothing is in it for you, kys

It's not edge. Ever read any history? People who resist and sabotage revolutions tend to get executed by the revolutionary government.

You don't fucking know that and that's not for you to judge. Who the fuck do you think you are?

nice spook, faggot

You can gain fairness for your employees. Socialism won't mean you don't stay in charge and don't make money. It's gonna mean you form a cooperative or some shit. Let your workers organize. Don't try to be a boss. Be a leader. Be a manager. If you're in charge of the business the act as such. Allow your workers assembly and voice. If an issue comes up address it. Allow wage disputes to be settled fairly between your workers and you/a representative.

Also if a actual revolution start you should be spared.
Instead of having a Ar 15 aimed at your head you'll be seen as a potential manager/commune administrator

Economic stability.
You wouldn't need to worry about the big chains taking over your shit after an economic downturn that keeps your customers out.
You wouldn't need to worry about having to choose between
A: making losses during an economic downturn
B: firing one of your employees
C: closing down your shop

Also, the debt slavery you're under would be fixed.

Instead of having employees you would be on equal footing with your co-workers and would all have reason to be equally invested in doing the best you can for your cooperative enterprise. You would make decisions together and pay one another as you see fit and according to need and ability. Also under socialism you would stop producing goods/services for exchange, instead producing for need and no longer be dependant on saturating the market with your produce for your livelihood.

Under the proposed socialist system with modern productivity/technology you would have food and housing accounted for anyway.

...

How small? Do you have employees? What is the business?

You literally just said you can't manage it as a coop and provide for your kids. Either they can't either, or you're a liar, cumrag.

And they'll be even happier when they get to hang you and no longer have to lick your taint.

nothing, become a worker coop or gulag

There won't, it will certainly benefit your workers though.

Because ultimately corporations can outcompete you in a heartbeat and eventually will, meaning you should *at least* consider some kind of petit-bourgeois market socialism like Neo-Proudhonism or whatever.

Nothing.

You'll get to be a little tyrant over your own cell in gulag under socialism.

I mean, there's a reason that the petty bourgeoisie have historically been the backbone of fascism

Define "small bussiness".
You will be squeezed out by large corporations within 20 years and then you will have lost all of your hard work and have to slave away to make money for the ones who squeezed you out. You are not secure in a job.

Moral egoists are worse than the an-caps.

And under socialism less working hours and free public services will give you time to spend time raising your kids.

...

You're lying.

I didn't know goods and services popped into existence.
Minerals and gas aren't extracted from the ground, crops not farmed and livestock not raised, planning not used by managers and investors to order the structure of production under parameters of risk and reward.

Free as in they are paid for collectively so that those who require those services do not have to pay more than those who don't. IE childless people still pay for child education, healthy people still pay for those who become sick.

Not having to pay back the ridiculous loans that you had to take out from a bank to start you business. That is unless your "small business" is not just some joke-ass thing where you sell nerd shit to other nerds online.

are those jews strangling stalin with a pillow?

Not getting put up against the wall post revolution

10/10 praxis

Off the top of my head, as someone who has at times been in a small business (with family and without) or worked as a freelancer:
1. No vague sense of antipathy and distrust. Sure, you lose some authority and some money if everyone's a stakeholder, but the bad blood you avoid makes life with coworkers infinitely less draining. Once more of the economy is socialist, the competitive perverse incentive to exploit employees would be gone, making the relationship among coworkers even better.
2. As others have said, "natural monopoly"-type services like insurance, pensions, credit, legal, and transactions are far better provided by public entities than in-house (or worse, contracted to some giant bloodsucking private corporation!) for small businesses. This means you'd have a more level playing field.
3. Public ownership in a syndicalist fashion would render big business effectively impossible in many sectors (retail, consulting, agriculture, etc.). This means you only have to compete with other similar small syndicates on equal footing, not franchised tentacles of giant conglomerates.

For the same reason, in sectors where agile small businesses fit into specialized niches alongside big business for reasons of varying economies of scale, small businesses like you would have a measure of direct democratic control over your competitors.
4. Regular customers would also have a mutual stake in your business, making customer relationships closer and more reasonable.

If you employ wage labor, nothing.
If you work alone, then your friends and family who work for a living (assuming they do) will be better off.

Actually, that's exactly what it means. He might be elected manager given his experience, but that power comes democratically from his coworkers now, rather than from the state enforcing his property rights.

As a small business owner in capitalism you're most likely to go out of business either by big business competition of them buying you out then you're back to square one.

pic related
It's not your resources. Employees are an end in themselves not just a means to an end. Your profits is not the product of your labour but theirs that you extract from them.

You would greatly reduce the risks of being killed by a disgruntled employee.

Not being an asshole user, but in capitalism, when things go bad (and if you believe the statistics, it's pretty much sure it will go bad), the system's answer is "work harder, and if you can't well though luck".
In socialism, you work for the society, and society works for you, so if you're an efficient manager, you can be a leader, and since you don't have to spend so much time fighting against others, you'll have more time to spend with your family and friends.

You might own a business, but since you mentioned it's small, chances are that you work a lot to keep it afloat, chances are that you want to do something for you and your family. But right now, because of the production system, even despite your objective, your focus is only to generate capital, and you should realize that those are different objectives.

You shouldn't, it's directly contrary to your class interests.

Small business owners aren't the people we try to appeal to.

You'll no longer have to worry about money, as it will no longer exist.

Depends on what you mean by small business owner.

If you mean you've come up with a new, useful product or a way to make existing products better or consuming less resources, you'd be able to improve even further and have access to a lot more capital that's currently denied to you.

On the other hand, if you just mean you actually hold capital and are just doing the same things everyone else does, then all I can say is that it will make those around you more likely to thrive, and that it's quite likely you currently indulge in luxuries that don't actually improve your life and it's those socialism would rid you of, not the things required to live a full, happy, productive life. Moreover, wouldn't it be nice to derive your sense of self-worth from creating something you can be proud of instead of just living off what the shit you own gets you?

I have just under 50 employees and pay them as little as possible. Usually just minimum wage and I advertise for jobs in foreign countries and most employees are immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Is it weird that I still browse this board and wanted Corbyn to win?

no, most people have an innate sense of justice and fairness

Incorrect.

Petty bourgeoisie get fucked over by the big bourgeoisie. During a proletarian uprising a significant percentage of petty bourgeoisie would come over to the side of the revolution and become a revolutionary vehicle in and of themselves.

You won't get shot.

Yes. Kill yourself

History would argue otherwise.

Nah.

Petite bourgeois peasantry were instrumental in the Russian Revolution/civil war and also played a substantial role in the Spanish Civil War as well.

How do you live with yourself man, I'm an investment banker and I feel like killing myself each morning I wake up because my job consists of bankrupting small businesses, can't reconcile it with my socialist ideology

Sure you can.

Marx and Engels were both wannabe bourgeois. It's a long-standing socialist tradition.

Seriously tho, why would we not execute you? what's in it for us?

You didn't?

You're better placed than most, be ready when the time is right.

Socialism allows more leisure time for you to care for your kids and you will have less stress from work due to lower working hours

Do you hate yourself or what

If Corbyn wins, rules might change so that your competitors can't drive this race to the bottom that forces you to either sink to their level or go out of business.

Come and ask us the same question again in 50 years. I'm guessing you'll be just as unemployable as everyone else at that point.

You obviously don't hate humans nearly enough to do your job properly. Go and read the comments on news websites until you begin to despise every living person and relish the idea of destroying their lives.

In all seriousness though, you're a tiny cog in a vast machine. It is more important that you play the long game and think strategically than throwing your life away for a sense of righteousness.

Socialism goes against your class interests. Stupid fuck.