What Small Business Really Needs

Monday, 03/12/2012 - 8:54 am by Joe Shure

Entrepreneurs aren’t being discouraged by high taxes. They’re struggling with a lack of support and resources needed to put their ideas into action.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, an Ohio man named Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher confronted then-candidate Barack Obama about the Democrat’s plan to raise taxes on individuals in high-income brackets. Wurzelbacher, who became known as Joe the Plumber, asserted the plan would hurt small business owners like him.

At the time, it seemed as though Joe the Plumber gave a voice to the small business owner population, tired as they were of high taxes and strict regulations. But two things proved wrong with this picture: Joe the Plumber, it turns out, is not a plumber at all, he’s merely worked for one. Also, he is woefully ill equipped to speak on behalf of small business owners.