Economic Stimulus Must Have: Raise guarantee on SBA 7(a) Loan Program

By: relawson
Published On: 11/10/2008 11:17:17 PM

If the government is serious about stimulating the economy, one of the top priorities on the list should be the SBA's 7(a) Loan Program.  This is a guarantee so that banks can take the additional risk needed to fund small business ventures.

The fact of the matter is that our nation is driven by small businesses.  The money they spend goes directly into the economy and very quickly.  The greatest innovations frequently begin in somebody's garage or basement.

I believe it is important to plant seeds and invest in our future as a nation.  We invented the automobile, airplane, PC, space shuttle, and so much more.  Our nation is rich because of innovators.  And best of all, just about every small business is located on Main Street, not Wall Street.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration actually has CUT spending on SBA programs.  They have allowed large businesses to win contracts that were suppose to be reserved for small business.  We need to change this.  And I am hoping that President Elect Obama will remember small business in his stimulus package, as well as everyone else on Main Street.

What distinquishes small business for these enormous banks is that most business people in small business have something that these large corporations lack: INTEGRITY.  I am old fashioned and believe that one's word is one's bond.  There are some CEOs in these large corporations who plan on running away with tax payer money.  Their word means nothing.

Comments



And they tend to treat workers better (Hugo Estrada - 11/11/2008 7:22:00 AM)
Of course there are going to be exceptions to this rule, but in my experience, businesses run by the founders tend to treat workers better than those run by administrators.

The difference seems to be that the personal reputation of the owner is at stake. So it is not that Mom&Pops Co. treats people horribly, it is Joe Smith that treats people horribly.

And from what I get from interviews of business owners, many of them are more hesitant to cut benefits or lay off people because they feel responsible for the well being of the families of the people who work for them.

Administrators, on the other hand, tend to treat people like numbers. And some popular literature for managers actually praises anti-social behavior, treating normal human feelings of empathy as character defects for administrators. I normally love reading pop business books, but this one is one of the few books that I found so morally disgusting that I put it down and didn't finish reading it: http://www.amazon.com/Executio...

So to stress relawson's point, not only do small business innovate and create employment, the employment created by it tends to be more socially positive than that of big corporations.