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Thom's blog
Did Reagan kill entrepreneurialism?
American entrepreneurialism is dying a slow and steady death. A new report out from The Brookings Institute paints a pretty dreary picture of entrepreneurialism in America over the past 30 years. As Brookings points out, the firm entry and exit rates (essentially the creation and death of businesses in America), a good measure of the vitality of entrepreneurship, decreased by nearly 50% percent between 1978 and 2011.
Similarly, the job reallocation rate, another measure of entrepreneurship, also declined between 1978 and 2011. While the Brookings Institute report stops short at addressing why entrepreneurship has been on the decline, it's pretty clear who and what the culprits are.
First and foremost, Ronald Reagan is to blame. 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.
-Thom
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Daily Take: Did Reagan kill entrepreneurialism?
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Monday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Does Cliven Bundy represent the ugly American?- Neil McCabe, Guns & Patriots Newsletter 
The Big Picture- Nate Sweet, The Big Picture producer
Hour Two: Who gets to decide who's a bully?- Brendan Hamme, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California Article: "" by Louise Gray. The bad: Jack Burkman: "" by Kyle Mantyla.
Hour Three: The Wheat Culture vs The Rice Culture |
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Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
Hour One: The Republican chaos strategy...
Hour Two: The Benghazi impeachment myth- Bob McNeil, American Citizen Party
PLUS, Did Reagan kill entrepreneurialism?
Hour Three: Half a million steel jobs at risk in U.S.- Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
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Thom's Poll
Is entrepreneurship dead in America?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Cliven Bundy is the "Ugly American?"
Who Knew Public Pee-ing Was Such a Blast?
Chimps play 'Game of Thrones' too
Show Up! To Save the Internet
Why Can't We All Be Sarah Palin?
The Evidence Is In - Americans are Economic Populists
SHAFTA is Poisoning Americans
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Thom discusses how the TPP threatens food safety with the Organic Consumers Association's Alexis Baden-Mayer, today's populist movement with Richard Eskow of the Campaign for America's Future and the fate of the internet with Free Press' Chancellor Williams. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom details how America hasn't moved past the white Eurocentric culture of Christopher Columbus.
Thom Hartmann on Economic and Labor News: May 12, 2014
The Wheat Culture vs The Rice Culture
Who Gets to Decide Who's a Bully?
The Rise of The Ugly American
The Thom Hartmann Program - May 12, 2014
Does Cliven Bundy Represent the Ugly American? |
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