[Mr. Jeeves]

Go talk to a small business owner.

I am a small business owner. My biggest problems are:

1) Federal tax and labor laws putting all of my domestic suppliers out of business.

2) Federal tariffs making the cost of imported goods from foreign suppliers too high.

3) Federal bailouts and favors done for banks and commercial real estate interests that put commercial real estate costs and rents out of reach for all but well-connected mega-corporations.

4) Federal Department of Education promulgating regulations that have led schools to raise a generation of moron citizens who can't think and have no work ethic.

I'm sure the corporate decision makers have done bad stuff, too - it's just that their misdeeds don't affect me as much on a daily basis. :)

[central_va]

Federal tariffs making the cost of imported goods from foreign suppliers too high.

Depends what you are importing. The USA collects less than 1% tariffs on over $2.7Trillion in imports. Almost a trivial amount.

[Bryanw92]

>>1) Federal tax and labor laws putting all of my domestic suppliers out of business.

Most of my domestic suppliers that have “gone out of business” actually sold out to some MNC and now their products are made overseas.

As for the “labor laws” excuse, what labor laws are we talking about? Obviously, the 800 lb gorilla is ObamaCare. But, all of this was going on long before 2014 when it actually affected businesses, long before 2010 when it passed, long before 2008 when he ran for office. So that boogeyman is not a cause. It’s just made it worse.

What other labor laws? I hear a lot of complaining about having to pay overtime, but when you have one person doing the work of 3 you have to expect OT, but it is quite annoying to have to pay a worker for ALL of the hours worked, isn’t it? Safety is big cost. Those spoiled Americans want a safe workplace, but a Chinese factory owner can just mop up after a worker dies in an industrial accident and bring in a new one—no harm, no foul! The costs of Affirmative Action? Yeah, that’s a big one. Do you believe that any president will end Affirmative Action? Remember that this thread is about supply-side economics so how will Art Laffer end Affirmative Action?