Yankee Doodle's DATA Tales

[calbert at tiac.net]

Moi:
> 
> "T's mom, concerned that she cannot afford her cat's leukemia 
> medications on her fixed income, determines to sell brownies, 
> fashioned from an heirloom recipe. Having spent years as a good 
> mom, she has developed a real skill in fashioning tasty morsels, and
> the product is a huge success. It not only sells on her block, but now
> a regional distributor wants to take her product all over the
> tri-state area....."

K-W:

> Yes, yes, Americans are always successful - vom Tellerwäscher zum
> Millionär. And I'm the bad guy.

Oh, so THAT was the purpose of the analogy! I'd suggest cutting 
back on the cheese, KW......If you were ever to try to put together a 
business you would find that there is NO GUARANTEE of success 
(unless your name is George (L'il Snort) Bush, who would crash 
repeatedly only to be picked up and dusted off by his daddy's 
friends)......its a concept we call "RISK"......and my point was that 
those who fail to share in the "RISK" have no claim to authority over 
the BENEFITS which MAY accrue therefrom.....

Here are some raw data bits for you to chew on (courtesy of 
Federal Reserve Bulletin by way of Kiplinger's 6/2001)

Number of businesses with fewer than 100 employees  - 5.7 
MILLION

Increase in the number of businesses owned by women between 
1987 and 1997 - 89%

Percentage of net new jobs created between 1990 and 1995 that are 
attributable to businesses with fewer than 100 employees - 63%

Percentage of net new jobs created between 1990 and 1995 by 
firms with fewer than 5 employees - 27%

And here are some really good ones for ya:

PERCENTAGE OF SMALL BUSINESSES THAT DISSOLVE 
WITHIN THE FIRST TWO YEARS - 34%

PERCENTAGE OF SMALL BUNIESSES THAT DISSOLVE WITHIN 
THE FIRST 6 YEARS - 60%

PERCENTAGE OF SMALL BUSINESS FIRMS THAT USE A 
PERSONAL CREDIT CARD FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES - 39%

NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS UNDER THE AGE OF 30 WHO SAY 
THEY ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO START UP A BUSINESS -
1 in 10

this is hardly the protrait of an economy dependent or subservient to 
"big Business" - sorry to disappoint.


> Your European regional distributor, speaking for the rest of the
> world, which really (!) still exists...

My employees all look very real to me, as does the balance on my 
home equity line (invested in another effort) - should I rub my eyes 
again?

love,
cfa