No One Speaks For Us

"Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there." ~ Will Rogers



Part of my life of success (at least moderate success) is that I assess my current state periodically and wonder if I am doing all I should be. This is especially true as I struggle with being self employed during a singularly awful economic recession and while our current Governor is taking radical steps to dismantle the middle class at a local level. Those people are my potential clients. When they are taking significant pay cuts, mandatory furlough days, and having their very job yanked out from under them, they get scared and do not spend money on non-essential items or services. What I face - at the big picture level - is a government (in this case, exclusively Republican driven and backed by massive amounts of cash and influence from the very rich and the largest corporations) that is bent on slashing services and wages for the lower end of the earning curve and throwing money and tax breaks at the largest corporations and wealthiest citizens. This is not a surprise as the business portion of our legislation is bought and paid for by the large corporations, fronted by Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce. Our government thinks WMC speaks for all business. It does not. But what can I do about it?

What Wisconsin, and the nation at large, needs is an organization made up of small business owners to represent us at the state and national level. A group that consists of the tens of thousands (state) or millions (national) of sole proprietors like me as well as those hard working folks who operate a Limited Liability Corporation, own a couple of restaurants or taverns, have a cleaning or home-repair business and employ a few dozen people. No one speaks for us.

We need it badly. And we need it soon. If you agree, then share this thought widely. It will only work as a grass roots initiative created and operated from the bottom up. It needs a clear message that can be easily shared. Something like, "When the middle class thrives, my business thrives and America thrives."