Is Ronald Reagan Bad For Small Business?

 

Ralph Nader believes that what's good for small business is good for the consumer, but that Ronald Reagan is good for neither.

The Presidential Accountability Group, a Nader organization, has published its first report, titled "Reagan's Squeeze on Small Business." Its author, Nina Easton, concludes that Reagan's economic policies will accelerate economic concentration, "transforming a nation of business owners into a nation of employees." Tight monetary policies, a tax cut slanted toward large, capital-intensive firms, and the Administration's lax antitrust policy have "virtually encouraged large corporations to buy out small and mediumsized firms."

The Nader report reveals little that's new. "It's really tired," says Fred Byset, associate director of government and regulatory affairs of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose organization is described in the study as the voice of "corporate America, not the small business owner."

Even small business organizations that Easton apparently thinks highly of wish they hadn't been quoted in the 76-page document, which some say is unbalanced and short on facts. It was "stupid of me" to assume that Nader would do a fair job, says Lewis Shattuck, executive vice-president of the Smaller Business Association of New England. "I should have said, 'No thanks,' when they called to interview me," he adds.

Easton's main theme is that Reagan has "played on the small business owner's fears and frustrations" by blaming all his problems on Washington and ignoring the threat of industrial concentration. Small businesspeople have been "misled," she claims, into lumping the interests of small business and big business together.

Some small business activists have been saying the same thing themselves, but support from Ralph Nader, not normally considered a business advocate, is a mixed blessing. They don't want to get too close to the Nader report. It's "accurate," says Herb Liebenson, president of the National Business Association, "but I'm not going to be out front in promoting it."