Most people who get a paycheck, who aren’t small business owners, simply don’t understand the tremendous difficulties businesses face with over-regulation. However, Americans are now getting a taste of what they have been missing and are now learning just how bad excessive regulation can be. Most of us understand that when a restaurant is limited to a certain number of seats, say 25% capacity, they won’t make as much money and may not make a profit. Therefore, they will have to lay off employees or go out of business.
Still, how many times have we wondered what regulations we already had in place before the Covid-19 crisis that were stifling, suffocating, and suffocating the profits of our small business community? There are endless regulations that each and every small business in the United States has to deal with. Then there are class action lawsuits, labor lawsuits, and contract lawsuits. Many of these laws are enabled by regulations on the books, regulations that the small business owner may not even have known about.
Since the Covid-19 crisis began, we have seen businesses like gyms, salons, and restaurants literally go through hell just to stay open, trying to satisfy new regulations from the local county health commissioner. Businesses have only had to order to-go, require all employees to wear a mask and put up plexiglass so employees don’t breathe in tiny airborne droplets of water that may have the Covid-19 virus coming from customers.
Have you ever wondered how much it costs small businesses to comply with those kinds of regulations, on top of all the other regulations that were in place before the Covid-19 crisis? Just to provide takeout-only service to restaurants, they have to put up signs, alert all of their customers, advertise their new format, buy more takeout containers, and train other employees on the new way of doing business. All of that costs money, at a time when your sales are less than 50%. How are they supposed to make money? We know that most are not.
And yet, do you have any idea how many regulations are already on the books? A typical small business may have 20 different licenses, fees, permits, or certifications on their wall. Each one costs money, took time to file and is usually renewed annually, those are additional costs. Imagine if there weren’t 20 different licenses, fees, permits, or certifications. What if there were only 5 or 10? Businesses would make a lot more money and then if a Covid-like crisis comes around next time they could comply with those new regulations without shutting down.
We need government, both local and federal, to get out of the way of small businesses. Small businesses are not the problem of spreading Covid-19, they did not start the problem, they are victims like all of us. Over-regulation is like a virus for business, essentially causing the same problem for potential profits.
Have you wondered during this Covid pandemic “why” we are putting all the burden on businesses? If we continually treat our small businesses in this way, we won’t have any more in the future. Larger corporations have more political power and influence. They can also use the government to make regulations that prevent their smaller competitors from competing.
If we destroy our small businesses now, we will regret it later. Over 75% of all Americans are employed by a small business, with so many Americans unemployed no one will do well, including large corporations. Can you imagine what the blow to our economy will be? Can you imagine the cost of all those unemployment benefits? We will literally bankrupt our country. And that is more or less what we are doing now with the Covid-19 crisis.
What we have to do is look at everything again now while we have the opportunity. We can make sweeping changes that will protect our small business community and keep our economy vibrant for years to come. I hope that this challenge of the Covid-19 crisis has woken everyone up, so that they can see how the hand of government and excessive regulation is destroying our freedom, options, economy and future. Please consider all this and think about it.