Purple Avenger nails it when he says “Desperation is the new hope
About 95% of what Reich has written here is dead on accurate analysis of the workforce transformation phenomenon happening out in the street today. He only drifts off into mush brained liberalism in the last few paragraphs of the piece.
And what did Reich do? Deflate the enthusiasm for the “startup boom”, which actually is the only option left for many in the current economic landscape:
Another surprise is the age of these new entrepreneurs. According to the report, most of the growth in startups was propelled by 35- to 44-year-olds, followed by people 55 to 64. Forget Internet whiz kids in their 20’s. It’s the gray-heads who are taking the reins of the new startup economy. And if you thought minorities had been hit particularly hard by this awful recession, think again. According to the report, entrepreneurship increased more among African-Americans than among whites.
At first glance, all this seems a bit odd. Usually new businesses take off in good times when consumers are flush and banks are eager to lend. So why all this entrepreneurship last year?
In a word, unemployment. Booted off company payrolls, millions of Americans had no choice but to try selling themselves. Another term for “entrepreneur” is “self-employed.”
According to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics by an outplacement firm, Challenger Gray & Christmas, the number of self-employed Americans rose to 8.9 million last December, up from 8.7 million a year earlier. Self-employment among those 55 to 64 rose to nearly two million, 5 percent higher than in 2008. Among people over 65, the ranks of the self-employed swelled 29 percent. Many older people who had expected to retire discovered their 401(k)’s had shrunk and their homes were worthless. So they became “entrepreneurs,” too.
Reich goes on to propose more entitlements which in turn would raise everybody’s taxes, which means he hasn’t learned from what got us into this mess to begin with.
The thing is, the self-employed in this group are not counted in the official unemployment figures. Think about that when you hear anyone talk about jobs “saved or created”.
