“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
Through The Looking Glass – Chapter VI
Lewis Carroll
Small business accounts for over 65% of all new jobs. If you wanted to create new jobs (I mean, if that was your actual goal and not just a cover story) you might decide to sit down with people who represent small business interests. The guest list for an actual, according to Hoyle, “Job Summit” then, might look like this:
- The Chamber of Commerce
- The National Federation of Independent Business
- The National Association of Manufactures
- and so on…
If, on the other hand, your actual goal was to consolidate power and become the de facto benefactor of jobs, you might want to sit down with the people who kill small business on a regular basis. To keep things simple, you should probably limit yourself to those with whom you are already sleeping. The guest list might look like this:
- The Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.)
- The American Federation of Teachers
- The United Steel Workers Union
- Policy wonks with absolutely no real world business experience
- And of course, Paul Krugman (an economist/columnist so far to the left he can’t ever be right)
Which list do you think showed up for the White House “Job” Summit?
To paraphrase Lewis Carroll (and, quite possibly, President Obama?):
“It is a job summit damn it! It is because I say it is. The question is, which is to be master: you… or me. That is all.”