chibimonnie

Last night I spent some time with my parents. I mentioned that I might go down to Philly to join OccupyPhilly. Mom then warned me about "allying [my]self with those weirdos." Ironic considering the generation she came from. I imagine her parents said much the same thing about the sit-ins and protests of the 60s.

While my parents are not exactly in the top 1%; they're certainly in one of the higher grossing percentages than most people. But Dad is a small business owner and he's getting the shaft. Gov't is so busy looking out for Big Business interests that small business owners like my dad have no one looking out for them. Which is unfortunate. I would love to work for someone like my dad. His employees are family and their families are his family. He, of course, has to keep profitability a priority (business would sink without that) but it's not his only priority. People are people, not ID numbers in a database. He knows each and every one of his sales people, their spouses, and their dependents. He knows that there are a lot of people depending on him keeping the boat afloat. With each business decision he makes he keeps those people in mind. I've never once heard Dad utter the phrase, "It's business, nothing personal." Because unlike massive corporations, small business owners like my dad recognize that it's impossible to truly separate the business from the personal. All business decisions have an impact on personal lives- from livelihood to work/life balance. Too bad Big Business can't remember that, too.