(Host) Retired entrepreneur, business leader, and now commentator, Bill
Schubart, takes offense at much of the language of certain national
business interests – who claim to be speaking on his behalf.
(Schubart)
I was what conservative business interests would have you believe is a
"job creator." I, and several very smart managers ran, and some still
do, a company that worked with national clients.
At our peak, we
employed more than 250 Vermonters. Today the company employs fewer than
100, but not because its current owners are paralyzed by fear of taxes
or regulation, but because the market has shrunk to that level and any
company committed to its own survival must adjust its overheads to
profitably match its revenues.
I hate to disappoint you, but as
president and part-owner I was not the "job creator." The market was. We
were entrepreneurs and an overheated consumer market created our jobs.
Neither tax rates nor regulations played a role in our decisions to
hire. We had no choice but to hire as many Vermonters as we could,
knowing full well that the market could shrink at any time, and when it
did, so would our company.
Promoting the idea that all business
leaders are "job creators" is as shallow as the assertion that all
business leaders should be exempt from regulatory and statutory
oversight, while the rest of us should not.
The paranoid
language trumped up by those who dislike government assumes that most
Americans are much less intelligent than, in fact, we are. We learn by
education, example and experience. An MBA and accumulated or inherited
wealth are not the only determinants of wisdom.
The obvious
effort to create and embed a popular language coded deftly with terms
like "free-up the job creators," "government intrusion," and "tax and
spend," arrogantly assumes that most Americans live in a perpetual state
of fear-induced ignorance. This is frankly an insult.
We have
lived through much worse: the labor abuses of the industrial revolution
in the late 1800’s, The Great Depression, the self-sacrifice asked of us
during World War II, and now the economic slump that was largely
created by a deregulated finance industry, over-marketing, and a culture
of excess consumerism. In time, this, too, will correct through the
resilience of the American people and the relentless acceleration of
innovation.
In fact, conservative ideologues do their own
long-range business interests a terrible disservice by pretending that
the current economic slump is simply the result of over-zealous
government. They preclude any intelligent discussion with working
Americans about the critical importance of quality education,
environmental intelligence and the new impacts of automation and
innovation on the future workplace.
The assumption that
Americans with their collective experience must be managed like children
to ensure the well-being of the job creators is self-serving and
shortsighted.
Business interests have always been well cared for
in this country – especially since President Reagan took office. It
would be much more productive to lead an honest conversation about our
place in the global economy and the economic well-being of all Americans
– and not just the privileged few.