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    Policy Matters

    Sit. Stay.

    ‘We don’t want the government dictating which doctors we are and are not allowed to see!’

    ‘We don’t want the government deciding which medical procedures we can and cannot have!’

    ‘We don’t want the government rationing care or creating inequities in the system!’

    ‘We want private insurance! Long live the free market!’

    Of course, none of these noisy opponents appear to have noticed that, under the current system, private insurers do all of these things.

    Microbusiness Fact Sheet

    Definitions

    "Microbusiness" is a term generally used to refer to firms with fewer than five paid employees. Some (such as the National Association for the Self-Employed) use the term to refer to firms with fewer than ten employees.

    Because microbusinesses are better defined not by their size but by how their size effects their operations, The MicroEnterprise Journal uses a more accurate qualitative definition: a microbusiness is any firm that is so small that there is no one working in the business that does only one job or task for the business.


    Numbers

    > Of a total 26.8 million U.S. firms, approximately 24.5 million, or 91.2%, are microbusinesses (2006; U.S. SBA, Office of Advocacy)

    > Approximately 95.2% of U.S. firms have fewer than ten employees (2006)

    > Nonemployer businesses — defined as firms with no paid employees outside the business owner(s) — comprise the lion's share of the microbusiness population. There are approximately 20.8 million nonemployer firms in the U.S. (2006; U.S. Census Bureau)

    > Nonemployer businesses make up 77.5% of all U.S. firms (2006)

    > During the period from 1997 through 2006, the percentage of microbusinesses among U.S. firms increased from 87% to 91.2%, while the percentage of non-micro small businesses decreased from 13% to 8.7%. Firms with more than 500 employees has remained fairly constant at less than 0.1% of U.S. businesses.

    > Each new nonemployer firm represents one new self-created job. In 2005, new nonemployer firms created an average of 72,361 new jobs per month. Job creation through nonemployer firm births are not included in monthly employment data released by the U.S. Department of Labor

    > Nonemployer firms generated $970 billion in receipts in 2006. This represents 7.4% of gross domestic product for 2006. Average annual receipts for nonemployer firms in 2006 was $46,724 per firm.


    "In the real world, the smallest atom in the universe is the hydrogen atom. And yet, hydrogen is the fuel that powers suns." -- Dawn Rivers Baker

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Politics & Policy

Micros Say No Mandates, Frown On Public Option

As lawmakers debate various elements of a health care reform bill, two thirds of microbusiness owners say they are watching closely, with about 60% feeling they have, minimally, a moderate understanding of the issues, according to a survey released last week by the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE). The survey was conducted among microbusiness [...]

Economy

Signs of Economic Recovery Abound

At the risk of upsetting some people terribly, it sometimes seems difficult to tell one politician from another. It would be difficult to imagine two members of that calling who could be more different from each other than George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. But President Bush, touting the efficacy of his economic policies [...]

Regulations

Mo-Better Home Office Deduction Bill Introduced

The Home Office Tax Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act of 2009 was introduced last week in the House (H.R. 3056) by my old friend Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX), and in the Senate (S. 1349) by Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). In both chambers of Congress, the legislation has been referred to their respective [...]

Research

Nonemployers Return To Strong Growth In 2007

After a single year of tepid growth in 2006, the population of U.S. firms without paid employees other than the business owner(s) came roaring back in 2007 with almost a million new firms, according to data released by the Census Bureau last week. Overall, nonemployer firms increased in number by almost 940,000, or 4.5% in [...]