Small Businesses Still Don’t Hate Regulation

by Stuart Shapiro

Several months ago, there was a survey showing that small business owners did not see regulation as a major problem.  It was roundly criticized by the right.  Well here is another one, this by the “Main Street Alliance,” a small business group.

The poll found that small business owners’ main concern is weak customer demand, not regulations. When asked what would do the most to create jobs, small business owners’ top response was eliminating incentives to move jobs overseas. Reducing regulation came in fifth place. In fact, most small business owners see government standards as an important tool to level the playing field with big business.

If one digs into the data a bit, one does see concern about taxes and regulation but one also sees a lot of support from small business owners for regulation, particularly environmental regulation.  Yet the GOP continues to argue that their jobs plan consists mostly of just cutting regulations.  But then again, it is not small businesses they really care about.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.