Then you must read this story about a New York coffee shop, and how it is an impossible proposition to try to run something like this. The story doesn’t even go into taxes and employment mandates. It’s a wonder that any business exists at all. And so what do we do toward the entrepreneurial class? We hate them, blame them for all the world’s problems, attack them as parasites and vultures, and try to drive them into further nonexistence. And we wonder why people with a penchant for doing business have all escaped to the online world?
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/18795/you-think-business-is-easy/
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Thank you for continuing to find these excellent artifacts, as well as your thoughtful perspective.
“The story doesn’t even go into taxes and employment mandates.”
Well, that’s no surprise there, eh? I would imagine that Slate’s editorial staff would never, but never, imply that as a negative.
“I opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop. Then it destroyed my life.”
I couldn’t think of a better summation of this article. These stories are a great way for people to learn just how difficult it is to run a business in some cities. Starting a business is a process few have any desire to go through.
Entrepreneurs are unsung heroes.
I have a (soon to be) family member who owns two small businesses and works both days of the weekend for job training as a low paid intern. When I asked him what he did for a living, he very bashfully responded “I’m an entrepreneur” as if it were something to be almost ashamed of. I was very happy for him and he was delightfully suprised that someone actually held his efforts in high esteem. It’s a shame that we’ve come to this point, it really is.
He can’t continue profiting that way. He must give back to society.
Thanks so much for this article – as an independent bookseller who held on for years in spite of ridiculous rent costs I can certainly relate. The problem of couse is that people miss being able to be gainfully employed or self employed. How do we get this to happen again? Do we simply need to ply our heart’s desires on smaller scales so that it is possible for us to come out from behind our closed doors? Because we can’t just stay behind these closed doors indefinitely.
I have been the beneficiary of entrepreneurs throughout my life. I suppose most of us have been, even those, perhaps especially those, who work for government.
It’s nice to see them not getting pilloried on occasion.
(random: unlike most stuff I read, whenever I read your writings I hear your voice. it happens with Stossel too)
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