The Department of Data at The Washington Post recently took on the question of whether or not small businesses were a driving factor in the American economy. The data clearly shows that small businesses have lost a lot of ground in recent years. To understand the forces shaping small businesses’ role in the economy, reporter Andrew Van Dam looked to ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell for context. She highlighted the role of policy shifts in the 1970s and 1980s, namely the implementation of the consumer welfare standard and the abandonment of the Robinson Patman Act, in creating an un-level playing field for small businesses. Van Dam writes, “Big-business supremacy wasn’t inevitable, Mitchell said. Given an even playing field, nimble, local entrepreneurs show time and again that they can provide better service at lower costs. Our situation today, she said, came from a conscious decision to make the playing field less even.”
Stacy Mitchell in The Washington Post“In the 1970s and ’80s, politicians from both political parties began to abandon small business.”
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