By Mary Becker
Growing up in a working class family in the rust belt one of my fondest dreams was to grow up and someday start my own business.
I looked up to business owners; they took the bull by the horns and charted their own course in the world.
They also did well financially, something which struck a nerve with a kid whose parents sacrificed to provide the best education possible.
Back then when a parent worked overtime to educate you it was understood that you would not spend your life studying something esoteric, but that you would use that education to build yourself a bridge to the comforts of the American middle class.
However, if I were growing up today I really doubt that I would spend much time considering opening a business as a way to financial security.
Today kids must be thinking about how to land a job with the federal government. It used to be that public sector jobs paid less then private sector ones, but they had more security.
In times like these it is very difficult to keep a small business afloat, but federal jobs have a history of being recession proof.
Federal employees also have a union to go to bat for them if they ever experience a problem on the job. Business owners have only themselves to fall back on when problems arise.
Owning a business was always a tightrope walk, but the risk was worth taking because the financial rewards were so much better than a safe, secure job with the government. All that has changed in the last decade.
The money is where the real changes have occurred in federal government jobs.
In the Aug. 11 issue of USA Today the paper states that the average compensation package for an individual in the private sector is $61,050 as opposed to $123,049 for an employee with the Federal government. Benefit packages appear to be better for government workers too. The Bureau of Economic Analysis says that average health, pension and other benefits add up to $40,785 for each government worker and only $9,982 for each private sector worker. Twice the money and benefits of the private sector, but none of the risks of owning your own business. Where do I sign up?
Seems like a great gig, right? There is just one problem. Americans making only $60K per year cannot afford to pay those who work for them $120K per year, at least not for very long.
According to Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, the “private sector has a profit motive, they have to be able to justify these expenditures.” Chaffetz goes on to say “we are the federal government; we are just oblivious to the idea that we”ve got to pay (a) responsible wage.”
After spending 25 years as a recruiter I have seen the job market and the unemployment rate go up and down multiple times, but I have never seen the job market as bleak as it is now.
Apparently the only place hiring is the Federal Government because you certainly aren”t seeing job openings in any other industries. Unemployment rates remain high across most of the nation. North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate at 3.6 percent. This looks good compared to Lake County, which last I heard was just under 20 percent.
The problems seem clear; I think the solutions are just as clear. We need to stop expanding the government and start expanding opportunities for small business. Small business can be our ticket out of this economic mess, before the recession about 70 percent of us worked for a small business. We need to get back to that business model if we want to survive and eventually succeed again in the global marketplace.
Unlike lots of folks in Washington D.C., I do not believe business is America”s worst enemy, but big government just might be.
Mary Becker is a former San Francisco business owner who now lives in Lake County. Contact her at mbnorthernlights@gmail.com.
