In all the government's smoke and mirrors and passing of snake oil,
little is being done to protect the small, independent businesses.
Small business has long been the backbone of this nation. But in
recent times...especially the past 40 years, independent small
businesses are becoming an endangered species.
Here is an interesting article.
Carl Jarvis
The coronavirus has created a cash-flow crisis for small businesses
across the country. Many are at extreme risk of being gobbled up by
massive, monopolistic
corporations. If we don’t act fast, one sad result of the pandemic
could be a future of gigantic corporate chains like Walgreens,
Appleby’s, and McDonald’s
-- and not much else.
Now, NBC reports: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, are teaming up on a proposal....The 'Pandemic
Anti-Monopoly Act'
would impose a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions involving large
companies until the Federal Trade Commission 'determines that small
businesses, workers,
and consumers are no longer under severe financial distress.'"
Our communities are stronger because of the care, personal attention,
and millions of non-corporate jobs that small businesses provide.
Let’s not allow
the big corporations to exploit the coronavirus to take them from us.
Will you support Elizabeth Warren’s bill which protects small
businesses that want to come back stronger? Will you fight big
corporations using the pandemic
to exploit them? Click to sign the petition.
Many small business owners are longtime members of the Progressive
Change Campaign Committee, and many have reached out to share their
fears and challenges
as they struggle to keep employees on the payroll and fend off big
corporate chains.
A PCCC member who co-owns two independent pharmacies in Kansas says,
"Even before the coronavirus hit, there were offers from the big
corporate chain pharmacies
to buy us out -- and they are always trying to lure away our
customers. I’m not that worried about our customers deciding to leave.
But I do worry that,
without protection, the coronavirus could force us to sell to the big
corporations due to temporary dips in our cash flow."
A PCCC member who is a dentist in Michigan writes, “I do not want to
merge or sell out to big corporations. The quality of dental work
suffers and ultimately
it's not good for the patients.”
A PCCC member in Montana shares this: “I have an Art Gallery, I make
wedding gowns, and we have a hot air balloon company. All 3 of the
businesses I manage
had to close but the bills keep coming. I have been volunteering to
make masks for first responders. The government has done nothing to
help me or self-employed
people like me.”
And a PCCC member who owns a jewelry store in Indiana says, “If the
quarantine had been implemented earlier, our tourist town on Lake
Michigan would likely
not have been forced to cancel our spring & summer events. I own a
small business & we may not make it through this.”
Across the country, there are everyday people like these who are
struggling to keep their small and independent businesses
community-based. We all will
lose out if, as with so much else, this virus decimates small
businesses, leaving us with a future even more dictated by big
corporations.
Sign the petition in support of Elizabeth Warren’s bill if you agree:
Congress must protect small businesses that want to come back
stronger. We must ensure
the pandemic doesn’t mean they are forced to sell to giant corporations.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.
-- The PCCC Team
