I am a bit of an aficionado of Reddit, and there is a subreddit simply called “Ask Reddit,” where people ask various questions. One question, and especially its comments, recently caught my eye. The question was, “Left Wingers of Reddit, what would you say your most Right-leaning opinion is?”
Are You Left Wing or Right Wing?
Before moving forward, not everyone is into politics, so a little bit of explanation is in order. If you’re curious about what way your views lean, left or right, here is an interesting quiz you can take to find out. Keep in mind that most people may lean one way or the other, but are not likely to be Right-or-Left leaning in every aspect.
The Left Wingers in the United States are considered more progressive or liberal in their thinking and are associated with the Democratic Party. They tend to be more in favor of government intervention into the lives of the people, particularly when it comes to the economy. For example, Left Wingers often believe in the concept of taxing the rich. Left wingers also tend to believe in the separation of church and state, and are more likely to favor same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and immigration reform. When it comes to the current Covid pandemic, Left Wingers tend to favor mask and vaccine mandates; they feel as though they are necessary to protect society as a whole.
Right Wingers, on the other hand, are more conservative and are usually associated with the Republican Party. They believe that the economy should have less government regulations attached, including to businesses, whether big business or small, and they also believe that traditional values and religion have their place in the way the government is run. In addition, they believe that individual freedoms are more important than government regulations, which generally puts them on the other side of the mask and vaccine debate. They are also more in favor of gun rights and less in favor of same-sex marriage, abortion, and immigration reform.
Now that you have a general idea, let’s talk about small business and how it fits into the equation.
The Answers
So, back to the Reddit question: “Left Wingers of Reddit, what would you say your most Right-leaning opinion is?” Several comments read, “Local ordinances and taxes should favor small businesses rather than hinder them,” or “Many regulations were put there by large corporations to stop the small guy from getting into the game.” Are these Left Wing or Right Wing ideals? Arguably, they are both. Additional comments read, “Protecting small businesses is a way to strengthen the middle class.” This can be interpreted as more regulations against big business, a Left Wing concept, while, yet another comment read, “They need to have less government intervention so small businesses can succeed,” a decidedly Right-Wing concept. So, in essence, Left Wingers and Right-Wingers have common ground: wanting more government and less government intervention at the same time, albeit for different reasons, but with the same goal in mind: so small businesses can grow. So, regardless of whether you are a Left Winger or a Right Winger, you’re still pro-microbusiness!
Years ago, my company did a fairly large project for a government agency in which we lost money due to being negotiated down on our price. I had the opportunity to talk with a retiring contract officer, who is the person who negotiates the government contracts, and he confessed that the government had a system in place that allowed them to hammer small businesses to the point where the business would lose money on the contract, and he worried that this system would either bankrupt or run off small businesses. This is something that larger businesses often do not have to worry about….one way that the government is definitely anti-small business, and it is wrong, which, I believe, both Left and Right-Wingers would agree with!
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