OMG! It's the Fiscal Cliff!

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Small business?
Hows this, firms that have fewer than 50 employees. 96% of all firms in the United States or 5.8 million out of 6 million total firms. These 5.8 million firms employ nearly 34 million workers.

Ok, but I still need a more precise definition. I'm wondering about profit margins. Could you give me the link where you found this information?

Like, I can understand that a firm with 50 or so employees might rake in a profit of a million dollars or more. Financially speaking, how much in profits defines a small business as opposed to a large one?

And what's the percentage of small businesses that have 10 employees or less? The percentage of the ones run by a sole proprieter? Do small businesses on this end of the spectrum typically show a profit of a million dollars or more?

The Republicans seem to want us to believe that Joe of Joe's plumbing is going to be taxed at the same rate as Donald Trump. Not so.

For example, I read that the typical Mom and Pop eatery brings in an average income of $36,000/year. Was that a lie? If so, what is the real average? If a business earns enough money to fall under the Dem's proposed repeal of Bush era tax cuts, how can it be defined as "small"?

This is what's making me dig in my heels:

Another smokescreen is the "small business" meme, since standing up for Mom's and Pop's corner store is politically more attractive than to be seen shilling for a megacorporation. Raising taxes on the wealthy will kill small business' ability to hire; that is the GOP dirge every time Bernie Sanders or some Democrat offers an amendment to increase taxes on incomes above $1 million. But the number of small businesses that have a net annual income over a million dollars is de minimis, if not by definition impossible (as they would no longer be small businesses). And as data from the Center for Economic and Policy Research have shown, small businesses account for only 7.2 percent of total US employment, a significantly smaller share of total employment than in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

However, this comes from a populist site, and if I'm going to request that people use non partisen sources, then I have to do the same. I've read similiar things from other sources, but are these statements lies? There must be somewhere that gives the sums involved where the Dems want to repeal the Bush era tax cuts on businesses worth X amount. There must be somewhere that gives the Republican monetary definition of a "small business," but I can't find that either.

I'm so sick of smoke and mirrors.