Editor's note -- This column was originally published 11/01/2008.
I spend a good part of my time reading and analyzing every bit of information I can get on collision repair. I still find the best way to get a pulse on what's happening in the industry is speaking directly to repairers. Several days ago, I had a particularly revealing conversation with a shop owner who was looking for equipment information. Before hanging up, he mentioned the expense of converting to waterborne paints and how difficult it was getting credit. Surveying the national scene, he mentioned the debate in Congress over spending $700 billion in taxpayer money to bail out the faltering credit industry (which was failing mainly due to greed and a purely ideological, instead of realistic, drive to deregulation in the financial sector).
"Who will bail us out?" he quipped.
I have no doubt this proud industry vet wasn't in any way looking for a handout from the government. That wasn't his point. Like the rest of us, he believed in staking his future on what he could create with his own two hands.
Meanwhile, in the nation's capital, legislators who should have been looking out for the best interests of the nation before this economic meltdown were wrangling over what probably will be the first in a series of bills to rescue the financial markets. Bottom line – all of us will be paying a fortune for years to cover the mistakes of a few.
This is the ugly side of working in our current economic system, where less than 20 percent of the population controls over 80 percent of the wealth. If you're a believer in "trickle down" economics and have been paying attention, you've certainly noticed that when wealth does move down the economic food chain it does so in just such a trickle.
Economic woes, on the other hand, don't trickle down. They rain and pour. And, boy, do the rest of us pay. That's very bad news for small businesses whose shop owners get hit on two fronts. They have less business because paying customers cannot afford to pay for work or auto insurance, and there's less access to credit for shop improvements because big lenders are overextended on loans they never should have made.
So, who will bail us out? You already know the answer to that. We will. Shops will do whatever they can to outlast the bad times. But that doesn't mean we have to let our lawmakers, who should be interested all the time in the best interests of businesses both large and small, off the hook.
It's an election year, so it's prime time for us to look for candidates on the local and national level who can best manage an economy that provides opportunities and wealth for everyone. On that note, you might want to remind your legislators just how important small businesses like shops are. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, small businesses are responsible for 39 percent of the gross national product; account for 52 percent of domestic sales; number more than 20 million and employ over 54 million people. Small businesses have increased employment by 13 million in a one-year span while larger companies have been cutting employment rolls. Small businesses also don't send jobs overseas or send taxpayers a trillion dollar bill for their mistakes.
In an election season where "change" has become the mantra for both presidential candidates, some of that change must involve greater attention to the needs of small businesses. By "needs," I don't mean a handout or bailout. We're not looking for either. All we want is a fair chance to compete in an economy that we help build everyday.
Tim Sramcik
