If there's one thing Republicans and Democrats agree on, it's that small business is the answer to what ails the economy. On these tiny bundles of entrepreneurial energy, they say, rides the nation's hope for lower unemployment and faster economic growth.
But the work of several economists suggests that most small businesses are not particularly adept at creating jobs, at least not the best jobs. The work also suggests their role in generating national wealth has been exaggerated.
The problem is that not all small businesses are created equal. Businesses just getting off the ground contribute most of the country's job growth, but older small businesses cut as many as they add.
Think Bill Gates and Paul Allen huddled together late nights developing Microsoft, not the corner liquor store.
"I don't want to pick on dry cleaners and restaurants and small manufacturing firms, but they're not a big source of job creation," says John Haltiwanger, an economist at the University of Maryland.
Politicians like to say that small companies create two of every three jobs in a given year. That's less impressive when you consider that almost all the 6 million companies in the U.S. ? 99.9 percent of them ? are small businesses, with fewer than 500 workers.
What's more, two-out-of-three masks the fact that most small businesses eliminate more jobs than they create in a given year, either through layoffs, closings or bankruptcy.
And many of the rest, the ones that don't shrink or shut down, don't offer much hope for the millions of Americans looking for jobs.
Many small companies ? outfits like florists, hardware stores and barbershops ? tend to grow with the U.S. population, not faster. So they don't speed the economic recovery the way an exploding new industry might.
According to an August study by two University of Chicago economists, most small business owners just want to be their own boss and never expect to hire more than a few employees.
In fact, the more you study the numbers, the more you wonder what the politicians are getting so excited about.
Haltiwanger and two other economists showed, in a study of millions of companies over 30 years, that small businesses no more than five years old ? that's about 40 percent of them ? are the only ones that create more jobs each year than they cut.
In 2005, for instance, more than 99 percent of the 2.5 million net new private-sector jobs in the United States came from these startups, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
But the 60 percent of small businesses that have been around more than five years act as a slight drag on the number of jobs available in the United States. They have cut about 0.5 percent more staff than they have added in a typical year, according to Haltiwanger.
By contrast, big businesses, the ones that get all the headlines for layoffs, have hired more than they have cut ? about 0.1 percent in a typical year.
Economist Charles Kenny of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan research group, goes as far as suggesting that Washington should stop offering certain incentives to small business owners, such as loan guarantees and write-offs on taxes for home offices. He says the money would be better spent subsidizing research and development.
"If you want jobs, you have to focus on the innovative firms trying to provide something new and different," he says.
The country's unemployment rate is 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years. But the U.S. still has 5.6 million fewer jobs than before the recession. Assuming the pace of hiring from last year continues, it will take three years to recover all the lost jobs.
Small businesses aren't helping much. They cut more workers than they hired in all but three months last year, and contributed zero to job gains again in January, according to a survey by the National Federal of Independent Business.
To change that record, Republicans say Obama needs to cut federal rules and paperwork that are burdensome for small businesses that don't have human resource departments, legal staff and vast resources like big businesses.
To comply with federal regulations on the environment, for instance, companies with fewer than 20 workers spent $4,101 per worker in 2008, or 4? times more than companies employing 500 or more, according to the Small Business Administration.
The same study showed these businesses spent three times more per worker on tax preparation than did their larger counterparts.
"As regulatory complexity increases, it's hard on small firms," says William Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, a group closely allied with Republicans. "We need to get government out of the way."
But many economists think the root of the job problem is deeper.
Again, it's the difference between old small businesses and new small ones, and the U.S. is not creating enough of the new ones.
It was true even before the Great Recession: The number of startups less than a year old was no higher in the boom year of 2006 than it was 30 years ago, when the economy was much smaller, according to the Census Bureau. And the ones that are launching are hiring fewer people, too.
The grim takeaway is that the U.S. could struggle with high unemployment long after a pickup in economic growth.
Even the idea that small businesses play an outsized role in the economy has come under attack lately.
A study from the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that the self-employed worker, that rugged exemplar of the small businessperson, accounted for less of the working population in the U.S. than in the other 20 rich countries tracked, except for Luxembourg.
Another study by economists at Harvard and Dartmouth suggests that might not be such a bad thing because poorer countries are more likely to have a higher share of their workers self-employed.
Adding fuel to the argument, Kelly Edmiston, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, showed that workers at small businesses are more likely to lose their jobs and less likely to have vacation days, retirement plans and a range of other benefits, including health care. Some 41 percent of companies employing less than 100 people offered no medical insurance at all.
So, myths about job creation aside, why isn't the U.S. launching more startups? The risky economy, regulations or health care costs ? a bigger burden for small companies ? could be scaring them off.
Haltiwanger thinks demographics may be at work. He says businesses are often started by people in their 30s and 40s. So as the population ages and more baby boomers retire, the number of startups falls.
"We're a roll-the-dice economy. It has a lot of spillover effects," he says. "But we're not experimenting enough."
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For Zelda fans:
Search for: the? diabolic zelda quiz
Thumbs up if you got mad.
every clip is an estimate of a? second long, a minute = 60 seconds, multiply 60X28 and you get 1680, add the rest of the seconds on the last minute = 1701.
An estimate of aproximately 1701 clips were used in this video.
@AinaBre it was never underated just was? not better then the other one.
@GameMation1? 25 more years? i dought it
14:00 ANNIVERSARY EDITION? FTW!
you sir are a true artist.
thanks a lot to the people who do this video:
really thanks, goods memories?
@SkyrimwillRule Thumbs Down if i? sent you here!
24:50 e.e Epicness YOU THUMB ME UP
e.e como se escriba like? (Y) XD
@sonicar364 Event when I?m old, I?m sure I?ll still? be playing this venerable series XD.
aaah majoras mask? what an underrated absolute? gem you are.. i love you.
@GameMation1 And for when we get to 50, our next goal will be 100, we will be old men when that happens(depending on your age, i?m sure i will.). Looking back onto both of these moments, proud of what Nintendo has achieved through? all these years. And i am sure, Nintendo is a company that will always be remembered. Here?s to the 50 and 100 year goal, and to Nintendo.
my favorite zelda? 8-bit musics in orchestrated version
epicness
3 personas? no pudieron contra Ganon
25 years of the best in? gaming
Q gran Juego? hasta hace llorar? XD
its incredible to see the evolution in the graphics?
but the thing that is the most amazing is that they kept the main concept of the game? through the entire serie.
So just to recap that is
Oracle of Ages
1) LoZ
2) Zelda II
3) A? Link to the Past
4) Link?s Awakening
5) Ocarina of Time
6) Majora?s Mask
7) Oracle of Seasons
9) The Wind Waker
10) Four Swords
11) Four Swords Adventures
12) The Minish Cap
13) Twilight Princess
14) Phantom Hourglass
15) Spirit Tracks
and
16) Skyward Sword
25 years that was great!
I like how everyone in the comments is mature and not fighting with? someone. Zelda brings ultimate happiness!! Win!
@Thegreywolf777? thanks!
@kozuki7 i was going to? put it in, but there waas a footage issue and i had a deadline to get this out
easily the best? nintendo franchise
I don?t love Norm Lewis? voice (clearly, he?s? a great singer, but he?s just not my cup of tea), but I DO love his acting. He?s so precise and unyielding. I genuinely feel sorry for him because I completely believe the obsession.
Some? of these people have very talented voices
The Bishop? is excellent! Beautiful voice
My dad was friends in? High School with the guy who plays Javert (Norm Lewis)
Alfie Boe is an amazing addition to the many talented men? who have played Jean Valjean through the years.
YAY EARL!!! ? Why must the Bishop be attractive? I feel wrong?
?yes it means im free
? javert? *funny face* ?NO!?
@ritsfata Yes, but the few who fall in love with the show matter. Plenty of people just skip through the show to the songs they like regardless of who?s singing them (my family), but if Nick got even one person to fall in love with Les Mis, that?s a good thing.
I?m not saying I agree with the casting (there are plenty of actors I would have preferred), I just said that what they wanted him to do worked, and it?s a good thing, because if it hadn?t worked he would? have been even more pointless.
@alphasia91 Yea, but for the wrong reasons. Sure, some might fall in love with the show but most will probably skip through to his scenes and forget the rest of? the show.
@ritsfata agreed!? he is amazing!
Nick Jonas received a role in the 25th Anniversary because he was Gavroche in the 10th Anniversary of Les Miserables, and his dad made friends with the? producers.
This? Javert is without doubt the best I?ve come across.
WHAT it took me a bit too long to realise Javert is King Triton from The Little Mermaid on broadway! I had a beard and a? wig in TLM, i guess that was why.
Love it wish i did go? *sigh*
It?s Good.. But it Doesn?t? Feel the Same
This Javert is my favorite Javert? <3
@alphasia91 Nick was also in the? West End production
I? just love this version.
The Bishop is currently the Phantom in London, everyone? in this show is amazing!!
@pipparetta Idd , onlangs gaan bekijken op West End ?. nooit te vergeten?
@LittleMollyWarbler Hahaha now that is the truth! He is definitely the most unsuitable Marius I?ve ever heard, and now that the Jonas fans are liking? Les Mis, they should so some more research and find the really good ones!
@alphasia91 Usually I?d agree, but the idea that they think Nick is the? perfect Marius makes me shudder.
God, I? love this bishop. So, so much.