This past week I saw a very interesting video from Jon Stewart. It has some slightly NSFW language. So mind your ears. Anyway, in the video Jon proposed a thought and question. The rich aka the job creators take all the risk so they need some sort of reward like a bigger payoff and/or more tax cuts. But he points out that there isn’t that big of risk for the rich. He also goes on to say that he is rich and if things go bad for the most part he will still be ok. He will still have money. In general the risk for people like him is very low. Mainly because he and other rich people don’t take the same risk as someone in the middle class.
The people who take the greater risk are often the people just like you or your neighbor, one’s who aren’t have a great idea, want to start a business and eventually create jobs. They have to worry about stocking up enough money to support their families, afford health insurance, pay their bills, save for retirement, while creating enough cashflow (aka money) to keep their business going. That doesn’t include making enough to support employees.
Those are the people who take the real risk. If something goes wrong, they are the ones who will lose it all. I know because I am one of those people who take that risk and it is an even bigger risk since I have several people who now depend on my business. So if my small business isn’t successful, they will have some major problems too.
That risk is usually too great for a lot of people. Some of my friends who still hold a 9-5 job would like to have their own business but are afraid to lose everything they have worked for.
The government and political hopefuls wants us to create more jobs and businesses, their solution is giving taxes cuts and money to the rich but that has helped very little over the last 12 years. Jon posed the question of, since the risk is so great to the everyday person, instead of making the risk of failure so damaging why not make failure less damaging. So those of us who want to start a business won’t lose everything.
Enhance the current Small Business Administration lending programs to entrepreneurs to help kick start their business. Set a low interest rate like 2-3%. Give a six month grace period to start paying back the loan. Of course the entrepreneur would have to meet certain criteria like, decent credit, a solid business plan that meets certain standards and answers certain questions like how money will be made. The business also has to be an achievable business. Take a look at www.Kickstarter.com as how many small novel ideas are getting crowd-sourcing from the public – people out there looking for change.
Getting a loan wouldn’t be overly difficult but it would show that the person has put in the effort, thought about the process and has done the due diligence leg work to start building a business. We just need to make sure loans aren’t given out willy-nilly like many mortgages were in the past. We don’t need another bubble.
It is just a thought with potential. Do you have some thoughts about this? I would love to hear them.
