Mike Periu hopes 2012 will bring better days for business.
3 Small Business New Year’s Wishes
The new year is just around the corner and I couldn’t be happier to bid farewell to 2011. It wasn’t an easy year for businesses—big or small—and its departure won’t be missed by anyone who tried to grow revenues and turn a profit this year. As I get my business ready for 2012, I’m taking the bold step of telling 2012 what I expect from her.
Wish #1: Political campaigns where economic growth is front and center
2012 is a massive election year. The election for the next President of the United States will take place, where the incumbent President Obama will compete against a yet-to-be-determined Republican opponent and perhaps a third candidate not aligned with either major party. In the Senate, 33 seats will be up for re-election with 23 currently held by Democrats and 10 by Republicans. Given this ratio of seats and the just-announced retirement of Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, the control of the Senate is certainly in play. In the House of Representatives, all 435 seats will be up for election. If 5 percent of the seats change parties, then control would shift from Republicans to Democrats. Seventeen Democrats and only 8 Republicans have announced their retirement, making a change in party less likely here.
In addition to these elections, there will be many state and local level elections including 11 governorships adding up to thousands of elections across the country. What we need desperately in 2012 are candidates that are willing to put economic growth, both short-term and long-term as the center of their campaigns. Are you listening 2012?
Wish #2: Greater appreciation for capitalism and free market economics
2011 was a year filled with calls for change. Many of these “domestic change agents” aren’t looking to simply correct some excesses or problems within our economic system; instead they want to radically change it, dismantle it and start anew with a utopian system that they believe will be more just. From this radical core emanate certain sentiments that are expressed—granted with less intensity—in many areas of our mainstream culture. These sentiments take it for granted that the principles that define capitalism and free market economics are ignoble.
Our system isn’t perfect, but is worth preserving.
