For more than a half century, the president of the United States has issued a ritualistic proclamation setting aside a full week to celebrate America’s small business owners. In an opinion piece for InsideSources, ITIF President Rob Atkinson calls on President Trump to issue a second proclamation establishing the following week as National Big Business Week. Large businesses are the real engines of the American economy, but public opinion and public policy have gotten dangerously skewed to the point where the very term “big” is now an epithet to be applied to any industry the labeler doesn’t like (e.g., “big oil,” “big food,” “big tech” and even “big chicken”). This bias has played out over decades in the halls of Congress and government agencies, as lawmakers and regulators have conferred a slew of valuable benefits and exemptions on small firms for no other reason than the fact that they are small.
When one class of business gets its own presidentially designated week on the calendar, it suggests they truly need and deserve special treatment. But the reality is that this small-business cronyism leads to lower wages, higher prices and higher taxes than we would have if governments adopted a size-neutral approach. So, if we are going to continue the tradition of National Small Business Week, then please, President Trump, can we also have National Big Business Week?
