Small businesses hire the people in the lowest level of the economic structure. The person making less then $10.00 per hour does not have any income to put into economic growth. The small business owner (My definition of small business is a business with <$100000 per year net income for the owner). It is these people who most need to protection of the government to assure the businesses do not fall back on slave-like employee treatment and abuse.
 Small and medium businesses have a certain responsibility to the citizens of this country who provide them with the opportunity to be business owners. The business owner with the lawn service business and three employees is out there working hard with his crew. He doesn’t need oppressive taxation but the three employees must be protected from the tendency of business men to make maximum profit at the expense of others. The influx of Mexican-born general laborers for these low-level jobs and the hesitation of the government to control this influx serves to prove the tendency toward employee abuse and the government’s intentional blindness toward it. 
We have the minimal employee protections in place already. We must be sure the government has the means and the will to help when needed. The business owner can pay a small tax if his employees’ average income is below a certain level. This helps the government pay for the support for the people who cannot afford their own health insurance at the wage they’re paid. There is a wage level where the ability of a person to save a portion of his income into a 401-K plan does not exist. What if a business pays well enough that the employees as a group save a certain percentage into retirement plans? The company part of the Social Security tax could be reduced. A novel idea: rewarding businesses for being fair to employees.
 Even poor people have a right to a minimal level of life. They don’t have a right to a private beach house or a 55-foot yacht but they have the same rights as the business owner to pursue these things. Keeping people in their place by underpaying them for their work could be construed as a rights violation. I do not think it is but there is a very thin line that must be patrolled by socially conscious people. 
 Here’s a thought: If the annual net income of a business owner exceeds ten times the average wage and benefits package of his employees he should pay a small excess profits tax. This same rule could apply to the top executives of larger companies. It is just the cost of supporting the American Government that empowers the business to exist and grow.



Wyo_Knott