It’s good when they listen

Posted on | June 27, 2008 | Comments Off

You know, of course, that I am a citizen journalist (well, if you don’t, you really should by now). But, in my heart of hearts, I am also an advocate.

That means that, while I’m busy learning about and reporting on public policy and how it impacts microbusinesses, I’m also being driven insane about the degree to which people on Capitol Hill (a) ignore microbusinesses because they (b) don’t understand microbusinesses and they (c) don’t appear to know how to learn what they don’t know.

And that state of affairs is exacerbated by the fact that microbusiness owners themselves (a) do not tend to think of themselves as microbusiness owners, (b) are not organized politically, and (c) have little patience with the intricacies of politics and policy that I find so entertaining.

Under the circumstances, this is what is commonly referred to as an uphill battle.

All of which makes my recent experiences with Congressman Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX) and his staff tremendously gratifying.

Gonzalez was kind enough to publicly thank me for my input in his opening statement at a House Small Business Committee subcommittee earlier this week but all I really did was to tell him something I’ve been writing for a long time now: if you want to know how small businesses are doing, in the medium or anywhere else, ask us.

Speaking personally, I would not have been inclined to rank that as one of most brilliant moments. It’s been needing to be said and I’ve been saying it. I think Congressman Gonzalez deserves a lot of credit for being that rare politician who was willing to listen.

(Pause for musical interlude … )

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(Sometimes, I really give away my age with these … )

More than that, from what I’ve been seeing, I would venture to predict that certain policy makers are going to finally wake up and figure out that there is this vast sea of very small businesses out here and that they need to learn more about us.

And that is very, very cool.

Are you wondering why I get so bent about this stuff? It’s because what we do as microbusiness owners has a pretty big impact not only on our local communities but, collectively, on the overall U.S. economy. But most of what we do is unknown on Capitol Hill because none of the government’s data collection efforts capture that stuff.

And how are you supposed to formulate rational economic policy if you don’t have a handle on what’s going on with 91% of the businesses in the country and how they operate?

So, yeah, I’m happy that micros are coming out of the fog with the folks in Washington — well, some of them, anyway. But that will only become meaningful if more and more microbusiness owners come to self-identify as microbusiness owners — and everything that implies.

[tags]microbusiness, politics, public policy, economic policy, Charles Gonzalez, House Small Business Committee[/tags]


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Category: Ego Fodder, Friday Musical Interludes, Politics


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Dawn Rivers Baker, microbusiness journalistDawn Rivers Baker, aka The Journal Blogger, is the editor and publisher of The MicroEnterprise Journal, and the self-proclaimed Socrates of the small business blogosphere. See her official bio to learn more.


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