Ep. 111: How “Small Business” Rhetoric Is Used to Protect Corporate America

The idea that small businesses treat their workers better is ultimately an empirical question. I’m curious if any definitive study exist—we couldn’t find one. As an institution they are less odious because they have less political power and don’t fund ALEC or AEI or the like, in any meaningful way, but on an interpersonal level I’ve seen no evidence they’re better for workers. Anecdotally I’ve found them to be the same, if not worse.

Citations Needed

I'm in the middle of reading "Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses" by Stacy Mitchell. In this book, the author maintains that there is social utility in the imagined small businesses, even if the owners are authoritarian petite bourgeois. She claims that they tend to treat their workers better than chain stores in their economic sectors. The author also discusses state government subsidies to chain stores & federal weakening of anti-trust regulation. So while the media & astroturfed use of "small business" is, as you described, designed to weaken labor, consumer and environmental protection, should we assert that there is a value to "small businesses" when they meet certain conditions, i.e. they're not spies, weapons manufacturers, polluters, etc.

Agreed. There was a LOT of worker abuse/"issues with management" (hmm...what could that mean...?) at my old summer job (housekeeping at Best Western), and incidentally, a lot of those people are the ones posting about wanting to go back to work and extolling small businesses. They're Very Concerned about the impact of BLM "violence" against small businesses too. 🤦‍♂️In my (admittedly limited) experience in the workplace, I've seen this dynamic play out a lot, *especially* the odious "hot/cold" tactic, which feels like a metaphor for the current moment-- that there's so much abuse that any incremental steps that do nothing to change the underlying power dynamics are taken as a huge victory.

Interesting theory. I would think if there’s a connection between worker abuse and workers being hardwired to please their bosses this phenomenon would almost certainly be more heightened in the US which leads “developed” nations in both.

Citations Needed

I was listening to this episode this AM, and maybe it's a lot of what of what we've been seeing lately in terms of the "I wanna go back to work" calls, but something that you said about workers anticipating the needs of their bosses reminded me of this: https://letsqueerthingsup.com/2019/06/01/fawning-trauma-response/ Granted this goes into mental health, but the idea of being hardwired to meet the needs of someone who exerts power over you is such a prominent issue in our system and it manifests everywhere.

Great episode, on one of my pet hates in terms of media tropes, the benighted small entrepreneur. Their representative associations in Ireland are on speed-dial for news outlets, bewailing social welfare benefits and 'red tape'.

Ciaran Colley

I can't remember what episode you said it in, but I've had this rule stuck in my head and I've started calling it 'Adam's Razor'; "When something is denied in the press, is it the lie I would hear if it were true?" (Not to imply we're on a first name basis - It just fit the cadance better) I say this because I've needed the shorthand for how often it's come up this week, for anyone watching police department tweets. If you ever needed examples to go to for this on stuff that's been said and confirmed as a lie within an hour of saying it, this past week's given dozens.

Ross James