***********************************************************
Dated: 5th September, 2011
President Barack Obama,
White House,
Washington DC,
USA
Subject: What can be done to promote small business and getting America back on top?
Dear Sir,
I’ve been closely following your efforts to get your poll campaign for a second term going as well as wrestling with the Congress to get the American interests back on track. I admire how Americans still have faith in you and are still behind you, as showed in the money they squeezed out of their pockets in-spite of the financial crunch post recession, something very different from your first run.
Mr. President, post recession you are very keen on getting America back to work and economy back on track. You have been requesting a bipartisan agreement from the Congress for the same, but I doubt if there is any real chance of achieving it in present political scenario. However, there is still something you can do, and only you can do. I will explain the reason at the end of this letter but let me get to the matter first.
Mr. President, the best thing anyone can even think of, and you can do it right now, is to get the small business in America going.
“Make the Americans self reliant.”
Relevant questions are; what does this statement mean and how?
Mr. President, let me first explain what happened that led to recession. Let me take a very simple example of super-markets selling ordinary household stuff.
About two to three decades ago (possibly more in case of US), there used to be so many small corner shops and delis, owned by families and run either completely by them, or by hiring a pair of hands or two. Then the billionaires and multi-millionaires wiped ordinary people out of the market. They had the money to own many big super-markets selling the same products the ordinary people were selling in their small shops. But because they had more money to purchase in bulk, they could sell through their super-markets at cheaper rates. People stopped going to small corner shops as they wanted to save money. The small shop owners suffered losses and went out of business. Everybody who used to have their own small business was forced to become an employee. And employees are those who get sacked when there is recession.
What has this got to do with recession and how can it be changed?
Mr. President, there are only a handful of private entities that own all the supermarkets in US whilst there are millions of Americans who work as employees in those organizations. All those millions only get salaries (just like the pair of hands employed by small shopkeepers and delis used to get) but all the profit earned from sales goes into those handful of accounts.
Now recession happens when the demand of products falls in market either because people already have all of them or because they don’t have enough money to have more of them. The second is more likely as employees only get paid enough to live their lives, not enough to live their lives luxuriously. Everybody knows people do two jobs to make ends meet in big US cities and many ordinary people can’t even afford private health cover. So when recession happens, those handful supermarkets suffer losses as they fail to find buyers for their products. So to cut costs they relieve employees, which leaves more people without money and recession worsens.
However, had those super-markets not been there and the people who work in those markets as employees, say 1/3rd of them owned their own grocery shops and employed the other 2/3rd, the second share might have only earned salaries but the profit from the entire US community would have been spread in the accounts of those 1/3rd who own those grocery stores. And with money spread out in possibly millions of accounts rather than a few handful, chances of recession would have been bleak, and even if recession had happened, its’ impact would not have been as bad as it was this time.
Mr. President, this is just an example of one industry but there are many others that can be taken. But the important question is, “What could you as a President do without changing the Capitalistic form of society of US and without having the need to shut down big business houses?” Something that would make small business viable, creating opportunity for Americans, and at the same time, still costing nothing in excess out of American pockets than what it costs now.
Mr. President, you have the authority to sanction the creation of a Government agency that co-ordinates between producers of consumer goods and shops and malls that provide selling outlets to those products. You as a President can propose to the Congress to pass a legislation that whether you are a big business owned outlet or a small outlet controlled by a small shopkeeper, they all will have to place their orders for products through that Government run nodal agency which will then supply the ordered goods at the same price and transportation costs to a particular location, irrespective of the fact the order came from a small shop or a super-market. The supermarkets and small shops can be charged a fixed annual levy to run that central agency. And since we are talking of millions of small businesses, that annual levy will just be nominal and won’t burn the pocket, and can be made business size dependent; bigger business have bigger orders, hence heavier levy.
What that will do is, it will make the buying costs same for both the small owners as well as the big super-markets. When buying costs will be same then the selling costs can be competitive as well. That’s when a corner shop will have the same opportunity to make money as a big supermarket not far off from it.
The manpower and most of the infrastructure needed for such an organization is already available as there are people who work round the clock stocking the big supermarkets. The same will be re-employed in the Government run agency and will still be doing the same job. The same transportation will be needed. In fact, when there will be more small businesses in the market, more jobs and transportation opportunities will open up as well. America will be running once again.
I am sure even during recession, a wide population of US had enough resources or a tap-able source to start a small business and be self reliant. That would have avoided a lot of turmoil. But alas, the fact it wouldn’t survive must have deterred most.
Even today, a lot of people will still be able to afford a small business by getting it financed, if only the business will succeed. All they need is hope that it will. And Mr. President, you have the authority to do something that can give them this hope.
I am not asking you to change the capitalistic set up Mr. President, nor am I asking you to close down big businesses. All I am requesting is to make the opportunity available to those who cannot compete with multi-millionaires. Make Americans self reliant.
Mr. President, even your political opponents can read this letter but they cannot do anything as you are the one who is the President. You are the one who has the power today. Mr. President, even if the Congress was to reject this suggestion and you were to ask the American public to help you finance this project and you were to put in all the money you have collected for your poll campaign into setting up this project, you won’t need a poll campaign anymore. This project will itself promote you straight into American hearts as they will not only provide you all the funds you need to get America moving but will vote for you as well. Your name Mr. President will forever be etched in American folklore, not just American hearts.
And your political opponents, well, I don’t think their own family members will vote for them, or maybe they will, because they all come from rich backgrounds and don’t care for ordinary people. And maybe the big businessmen won’t vote for you. But what percentage of voting American population do they represent?
What I am saying is not going to weaken America in any way. In fact, it will only strengthen the American society, lead to social bonding, camaraderie and bonhomie as the Americans will rebuild a new America where everybody will once again have an equal opportunity to succeed. If anything, the American society will be twenty times stronger than what it is now.
Mr. President, big business houses wiping out ordinary people in business is the ugliest face of capitalism. But I don’t support Socialism either. In socialism, everybody is equal, and when everybody is equal, everybody is poor, as was in USSR. Everybody is not equal, some are better. But when everybody gets paid the same irrespective of how good they work, no one wants to work and Government has to resort to using force to make people work, which leads to human rights violations, something we complain about China.
Neither Socialism nor Capitalism is a good model of a human society, and both have failed. I rather propose “Equalism” which is a society that envisages equality over a wide spectrum. That is, everybody gets equal opportunity but those more talented and enterprising get a chance to earn many times more, but never too much so that they become sole rulers of a society, like big businessmen in Capitalism, monopolizing entire markets, leaving everybody else as their slaves, that is employees. If you want to Mr. President you could read about “Equalism” in detail on this page even though I am not asking for any social change for America:
http://www.fatalurgecarefreekiss.com/Politics/ASAP.html
I always say, when you are faced with the question, “Someone needs to do something”, its’ answer always is, “Me”. If you answer it “You” then you are pushing the responsibility to someone else who might not even take the responsibility, leave alone doing anything or not, or not doing properly.
The question I faced today was, “Someone needs to remind Mr. President of the vast power and resources he has at his disposal.” The answer was “Me” and I have done my job. I don’t have the power or resources to do it for Americans, Aussies or Indians, but I had the power to write a letter and share it with you and everyone. I’ve done that.
Rest is up to you Mr. President.
Sincerely,
Amanpreet Singh Rai,
1/269, Henley Beach Road,
Brooklyn Park, SA
Australia 5032.
Ph: +61 43 023 5589
Email: fatalurgecarefreekiss@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.fatalurgecarefreekiss.com
***********************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment