Inconceivably prolific writer Stephen King said:
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
I’m a writer. Though one nowhere near as inconceivably prolific as Stephen King. And I’ve spent my entire life rigorously adhering to his maxim. Including for many years before I knew it was his maxim.
For the last three decades or so? Reading means engaging the Internet. And that increasingly invites an exceedingly creepy problem.
EVERY Internet-connected thing around you – and even not around you – is spying upon you. Which is how all the things you read or even talk about immediately appear in your digital feeds.
Search, say, a trip to Belize? Or even discuss one with a fellow human? And presto: Belize digital ads and line items coalesce before you from out of the ether. That’s not creepy at all.
This MASSIVE surveillance state does have a tiny upside. The avalanche of (incredibly Left-wing biased) returns on your tiniest of searches can be helpful when reading so as to write. However, sometimes there is a blip in the Matrix – and the full-on response from our Big Tech Overlords is a little tardy.
And so it was two weeks ago when I wrote:
Small Businesses Aren’t Hiring – Because Big Cronyism is Murdering Them:
“We’ve for decades been told small businesses are vital to our economy. Mostly because they are….
“When small businesses are facing this sort of crushing downward pressure? One thing they definitely aren’t doing is hiring people. Because they are too busy trying to stay alive. Which also means things ain’t great for their existing employees.”
I examined the state of small business – but only going back to the middle of 2024.
Subsequently, our Big Tech Overlords have filled my feeds with stories reminding me of small business’ deaths and dearths of hiring going WAY further back.
We’re talking decades of small business stagnation and elimination. Much of it the intentional result of Big Government crony policy. Targeting Small Biz so as to benefit Big Biz.
The 2024 Destruction of Small Business Employment in Pictures – December 4, 2024
The Economy That Small Businesses Do Not Deserve – December 6, 2023
63% of Small Businesses Have Stopped Hiring and 10% Started Layoffs – September 14, 2022
2022 gets us to the tail end of the idiotic government lockdown of the economy in the name of a government-made Chinese virus. Which amongst many other evils? Was a titanic assault on small businesses – as a titanic crony assist to Big Business.
What Is an ‘Essential’ Business Anyway? – March 31, 2020:
“(G)overnments have offered confusing guidance on what qualifies as ‘essential’ or ‘nonessential’ businesses….”
It actually wasn’t confusing at all. If you were a Big Gov crony business? You were an “essential” business. And allowed to keep doing business.
Pandemics Have Fueled the Rise of Mega-Corporations – June 4, 2020:
“The long-term result of the Black Death was the strengthening of the power of big business and the state. The same processes are happening much more rapidly during the coronavirus lockdown.”
Lockdowns: Big Banks’ Further Market Consolidation – Further Aided by Big Government – February 23, 2022
Just How Massive Amazon Has Grown During the Pandemic, in 8 Charts – October 18, 2021
I wonder if all of that hurt small businesses…?
Small Businesses Are Dying by the Thousands – And No One Is Tracking the Carnage – August 11, 2020
Locking us inside forced us all to spend (even) more time online. I wonder if that helped Big Tech…?
Tech Giants’ Profits Soar as Pandemic Boom Continues – July 27, 2021
But Big Government doesn’t need a disease it created to engage in Big Biz cronyism. A global economic collapse it created will do.
The Size of the Bank Bailout: $29 Trillion – December 14, 2011
How Dodd-Frank Doubles Down on ‘Too Big to Fail’ – February 13, 2014:
“The Dodd-Frank Act, passed in 2010, mandated hundreds of major regulations to control bank risk-taking, with the aim of preventing a repeat of the taxpayer bailouts of “too big to fail” financial institutions. These regulations are on top of many rules adopted after the 2008 financial crisis to make banks more secure.”
Of course the crony Big Banks can MUCH better afford to comply with all of this additional Big Gov than can the small banks. And of course Big Gov knows this….
How Dodd-Frank Damaged Community Banks and Hurt Small Businesses – November 11, 2016
And now some pre-economic collapse “Small Biz Ain’t Hiring” headlines to see us out….
Small Employers Shed More Jobs – December 3, 2008
Small Businesses Brace For Burden Of Federal Minimum Wage Hike – September 1, 2007
Because of course raising the minimum wage is another way Big Gov can crony-up to Big Biz. As Big Biz can much better afford the artificially higher wages than can small businesses.
Small Business Hiring Slows – April 17, 2006
Small-Business Hiring and Wages Slowed in 2005 – January 3, 2006
Going back any further in time begins to strain the limits of even our Big Tech Overlords’ delivery capabilities. But you get the point.
And lest we forget: There has been the many decades of Big Gov and Big Biz teaming up to destroy Small Biz via fake free trade.
Looks Like Ross Perot Was Right About The ‘Giant Sucking Sound’ – February 11, 2011
We are in the midst of a multi-decade all-out assault on small businesses.
This is DC and Wall Street joining forces to wage war on Main Street. For decades.
And then they have the audacity to pretend to wonder why the US is now so exceedingly awful.
And that they are just the freaks to fix all of it.
Never mind that they’re the freaks who broke all of it.
First published at LessGovernment.org.
Seton Motley is the president of Less Government, a DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the power of government and protecting the First Amendment from governmental assault.
