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Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS America's biggsff job belongs ffo small business By Iticliurd L. I.eslier. President (iliiimher of Commerce of the United .Sttiles Question: What will happen in the 1980's if we heed the no-growth zealots who want Washington to enforce a lower standard of living by taxing, redistributing and rationing away the nation's resources? Answer: The possible devastation of our economy, and end to the longest . and most successful experiment in individual freedom the world has ever known. Many people might judge that prediction extreme. They would probably add that with only 6 percent of the world's population, America should feel guilty about consuming more than 30 percent of the world's energy. But wait a minute, the United States produces a tremendous amount of the world's goods, and it was we who first made the production of much of the world's energy possible. As columnist Michael Novak recently noted: "While the Uinted States may represent a little less than 6 percent of the world's population, it does not use 30 percent of the world's energy. It does not use 30 percent of the word's sun, wind, moving water, oxen, donkeys and human backs. That is what the world meant by energy until the inventiveness in-ventiveness released by democratic capitalism 200 years ago changed the meaning of the word." When we think of energy today, we think of oil, electricity, gas and nuclear power, but we often forget that it was we Americans the 6 percenters who developed these modern forms. Indeed, Novak insists: "Six percent of the world's population has invented 100 percent of the world's modern energy and distributed almost 70 percent of it to the rest of the world." With a record like that, Americans should be feeling good, not guilty. But is this tiny fraction of the world's population turns away from progress u we continue to promote wasteful government spending over needed research, investment and the development of new technologies, the we should and must feel overwhelming Why? Because we will be deliberately turning our backs on some 4 billion people around the world, many of whom are already poor and suffering. suf-fering. They desperately need our help, skills and examples of self reliance if they are to grow enough food and produce enough energy to survive. Should we walk away from this problem, we will be inviting worldwide chaos that could engulf us all. Clearly then, American's greatest challenge in the 1980's lies in renewing powerful ecomonic growth. It is especially important that all those who consider themselves idealists, with a mission to save the world, understand this point. Second, we must also realize that much of this awesome respon-silibity respon-silibity belongs to small business. The some 13 million small businesses in America already form the backbone of our economy. They represent 97 percent per-cent of all individual firms, employ more than half the labor force, provide the livelihood for 100 million Americans and create half our gross national product. What small businesses provide best if precisely what we and the rest of the world need most innovation and growth. Recent studies show it is the small innovative businesses that grow the fastest, generate the most new jobs, and often contribute the revolutionary technological break-throughs that have earned America her reputation as the country of the future. But as we look to small business to provide the quality of leadership in in the past, we must recogniJ vulnerable it has become to economic problems. Inflation ! small business in a bind, since it J pay higher prices for raw nat and supplies, then risk the wr&ti consumers if it raises prices. I I Capital is difficult to obtain tJ small business, by definition, a risky. Yet inflation compels Ejjj borrow more, even as it increaiaj cost of borrowed capital t. devaluing the purchasing po8 funds ultimately spent. j Firms that do take risks, mt ceed, face excessive taxes. regulations and paperwork especially discrimiawry because sj business usually cannot affori experts needed to inter bureaucratic demands. i i The Administration, cognui; these growing difficulties, plans k a a White House Conference on 3 Business, beginning January v anticipate it will be the most examination of small business cj nation's history. The U.S. ChaiLie made a major effort helping to or; the Conference and it has pre.- special report to the Presides, 1 State of Small Business." I am profoundly hopeful tbf j fere nee will be productive and a directives of real substance Chamber, so broadly-based r: 90,000 members, of which more i; percent are members of q business, offers an ideal vebj carry them out. But give: j magnitude of the problems we ii the 1980's, an even greaied j mitment is needed. We chalky Americans to become involved :j vital effort. j I |
