Did Reagan Kill Entrepreneurialism?

[ashling]

Before Reagan came to Washington, small mom and pop shops were the backbone of our economy. You could walk down any main street or strip mall in this country, and it would be rare to find a big box retailer or a large chain store.

If you needed groceries, you went to the local grocer. If you needed a new hammer, you went to the local hardware store.

But then Reagan came along.

He stopped enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1982, and handed out massive and unfair tax breaks to large corporations and their executives and stockholders, all at the expense of the small businesses that had built the American economy.

As a result, mom and pop stores began to close, because they simply couldn't afford to compete with the big box stores that were growing out of control.

This is a trend that has been going on ever since Reagan stepped foot inside the White House.

[randys1]

1. Yes, and the middle class, phucker killed it all, worst president in history besides W

[Dawson Leery]

2. Yes. He also shifted the tax burden onto the middle class, the backbone of entrepreneurship.

Lowering the short term capital tax gains rate made it possible to make huge short term profits by draining assets/cash out of businesses.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I wouldn't put it all on Reagan, since...

that was trending anyway.

But more to the point is that there is little reward for innovation any more. Gone are the Bell Labs and Edwin Lands of yore. Innovate now to get your patent stolen and funding drained.

OK, point to Tesla and a few others, also point out patent theft as good sport in the past, but now it's gotten to the point that we're falling behind, with Europe barely keeping up with China and leaving us in the dust.

Is this a good time to mention that less than half of our engineering students are Americans? We have no problem putting our kids in deep debt for degrees in gender studies or middle english literature, but neither do we make much effort to subsidize them for science and engineering.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Reagan made stupid respectable.

[moondust]

5. "Government is the problem."

Get rid of government and regulation and big business is pretty much free to exploit and tyrannize anything and everything at will. Biggest, most ruthless monster wins. End of story.

[ashling]

6. Exactly

There was a guy in grad school who's rant against the government was that the government could put him in jail, but corporations couldn't.

My response: Don't be so sure about that.