Why is small business failing?

[coboardhead]

Sounds like your workers comp and safety regulations are really tied together. OSHA, here, can seem almost overwhelming...definitely an area where the regulations should be revisited. However, OSHA does not apply to the owners. I get to crawl around in collapsing buildings all the time! I just cannot, or will not, send someone else in.

I guess my point is that I do not see that the regulations prevent a large number of people from starting a business who are qualified and experienced. I can see that someone who does not know what he is doing could not possibly start some businesses. The regulations probably help folks like us.

[KGB-NP]

CB,

I started my business out of necessity..."gun to my head." I bought my first house at 24 years old while in my apprenticeship. I got laid off from my electrician job in 1993 just after I bought a triplex with a friend of mine. I was crapping my pants, but it was the push I needed, and they did me a big favour. I actually thanked my supervisor when he smoked me. I hated the fact that the laziest bum on the job got the same pay I did for working hard. That's unions for you though.
I have two trades, I "learned" how to sell water to a whale, and I am one of the very few ethical contractors around my area, but I learned some really serious lessons the hard and very expensive ways. If government regulated the start ups like I described then I and others would be way better off. I almost threw in the towel in 2005 after due to some hard lessons. The gun to my head and being a stubborn SOB kept me in the game and it has paid off in the long run. I only WISH for other's sake they would enforce my guidelines to help people succeed. Too many starry eyed dufusses out there sinking their own ships and drowning their families along with them.

[J64TWB]

You know what regulations could have helped ALL businesses? The ones that could have prevented the crash of 2008.

[KGB-NP]

[MalibuGuru]

[J64TWB]

Regs against credit default swaps, derivaties, packaged loans. Everything that scorched the economy clean and fuc*ked us all.

[mac]

This is hysterically funny:

[MalibuGuru]

[pueno]

[mac]

It is too bad that the right cannot have a sensible discussion about regulation, beyond pointing to a Bush-era regulation as evidence of unreasonableness. Earlier this week I met a couple in Paris at D'Orsay. He was a financial guy--hates numbers now. I asked him if people should have gone to jail over the 2008 melt-down. He said they should have, but wasn't well informed about the actual process of deregulation that led to the debacle.

The right, in almost all their efforts, treat de-regulation as an end in itself, regardless of result. Much of the left has the same problem; they don't seem to be aware of, or much trust, incentives that would accomplish their purpose without regulation. The conservatives have a decidedly mixed record. Deregulation of trucking and airlines were huge successes, they delivered cheaper prices for consumers and increased economic activities. So far so good. De-regulation of the energy and financial sectors were huge fiascoes. It is not entirely coincidental that the two bills that de-regulated those sectors were written by Phil Gramm, former Texas Republican Senator. The devil is in the details--which is one of the reasons that conservatives avoid mentioning the details. Bard has particular credibility problems in this respect--he's pissed because his brother filled wetlands without the necessary permits, and had to pay large fines, although he avoided criminal prosecution. He will not post any pertinent details.

There are many regulations that should be eliminated, many more that should be sunsetted, and many areas where fiscal incentives and/or penalties would be more efficient and equally effective. But you can't have a serious discussion about that unless you are willing to talk about some details, rather than hurl GOP talking points, wrapped in feces, over the net.