"Since small business constitute 99.2% of all employer businesses in California, and all of non-employer business, the regulatory cost is borne almost completely by small business."
This a non-sequitur. According to www.sba.gov, small businesses account for about half of private sector employees and 44% of payroll (on a national level). This is a huge part of the economy but it is not "almost completely" the whole economy.
So... the state famous for Silicon Valley is one of most hostile to entrepreneurship? Makes sense.
California has high personal and corporate taxes, laws that often favor employees over employers, lots of burdensome regulations, and is generally regarded as "economically less free" and hostile to businesses.
It also has an economy larger than all but a handful of countries, is generally in the top 15 states for income per capita, gross state product per capita, median household income, etc. On the other hand, the study mentions a ranking where the state with the most economic freedom was Kansas, which is average (or a bit below) on those same metrics.
Overall, at first glance it looks to me like there's a moderate negative correlation between what they define as "economically free" and a state being economically successful. What is it they're arguing for, again?
Or perhaps when businesses become successful, the state is able to take a bigger cut. If there isn't much activity, the host isn't fat enough to make a good target for taxes and regulation.
I do think the question, given California's fiscal difficulties, of whether or not California will be able to sustain its historical economic advantage is a legitimate one especially with migrations to neighboring states that Texas seems to be benefiting from in particular. In this particular case however, it would be interesting to know whether or not the cost/burden of regulation has gotten progressively worse or if there's even a trend in California as clearly California has been a success until more recently.
There also appears to be a meme developing that Silicon Valley may not hold as many advantages as it did in the past given that the cost to develop a web based business has dropped so dramatically - meaning that access to venture capitalists isn't as important as it used to be. [disclosure - I don't live in California]
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 28.1 ms ] threadThis a non-sequitur. According to www.sba.gov, small businesses account for about half of private sector employees and 44% of payroll (on a national level). This is a huge part of the economy but it is not "almost completely" the whole economy.
California has high personal and corporate taxes, laws that often favor employees over employers, lots of burdensome regulations, and is generally regarded as "economically less free" and hostile to businesses.
It also has an economy larger than all but a handful of countries, is generally in the top 15 states for income per capita, gross state product per capita, median household income, etc. On the other hand, the study mentions a ranking where the state with the most economic freedom was Kansas, which is average (or a bit below) on those same metrics.
Overall, at first glance it looks to me like there's a moderate negative correlation between what they define as "economically free" and a state being economically successful. What is it they're arguing for, again?
Not to mention that at least some of the regulation is probably net-beneficial even if it inconveniences a few businesses.
I do think the question, given California's fiscal difficulties, of whether or not California will be able to sustain its historical economic advantage is a legitimate one especially with migrations to neighboring states that Texas seems to be benefiting from in particular. In this particular case however, it would be interesting to know whether or not the cost/burden of regulation has gotten progressively worse or if there's even a trend in California as clearly California has been a success until more recently.
There also appears to be a meme developing that Silicon Valley may not hold as many advantages as it did in the past given that the cost to develop a web based business has dropped so dramatically - meaning that access to venture capitalists isn't as important as it used to be. [disclosure - I don't live in California]