Does Small Business Still Matter to the Left? (Flashback to '04)

I remember the presidential campaign of 2004, a clash of values and vision. Howard Dean’s community aesthetics tied into Howard Schultz building out Starbucks as a third place for apartment dwellers. Small business would fill out all the little shops on the walkable block. This contrasted to the Bush-Cheney vision of “cowboy capitalism”, or the “ownership society”, with praise for newbuilt subdivisions and big-box retail as the American Dream fueled by cheap oil. What happened? Howard Schultz, once an icon of responsible capitalism, is now a “union buster” and “corporate shill”. (“They closed the Starbucks at UNION Station in DC? How fitting”). Those downtown small businesses, struggling due to workers not being in the office towers upstairs? “Let them fail”. Today, it is the Right that pines for physical third places, specifically churches, temples, and indoor shopping malls; and against deforestation in their communities (see the controversy over data centers overlooking Manassas National Battlefield). The Left, at least the ones who can afford the privilege, will buy that larger house with the big kitchen and extra bedrooms (for home offices), and order necessities and luxuries on their Amazon Prime account. Enter the digital age. Online confessionals by small business owners and managers explain just “how the sausage gets ground” when keeping their shop open- for example, the floated checks or delayed code-mandated repairs. Young people, being less attached to work, have less tolerance for the owner’s eccentricities- which contrast to the lawyer-reviewed handbooks that the big corporations issue. Career advancement, once a hallmark of fast-growing small and medium sized businesses, is less important when you just want to do your job and get a paycheck. The home or apartment is the first, second, and third place – live, work, and play- when you have a virtual job and a virtual community on social media. Then there is the question of feasibility for a college-educated professional or regular working mariner to pursue small business ownership- retail rents are still high, despite the so-called retail apocalypse; and student loan and home mortgage costs cutting into investable capital. In other words, more people are failing the Quick Test of liquidity, through issues beyond their immediate control. Big business has moved to the Left, and I am talking in economic terms. For the past 15 years, at least until last year’s interest rate bump, big business has been able to borrow money at 0 to 2% rate, effectively operating under Keynesian economics; while small business owners are constrained to a restrictive money policy, with credit card advances and home equity loans always at 7% or higher. Big business, therefore, was able to implement liberal priorities such as health insurance for all employees, and a higher base wage; while smaller businesses had less financial flexibility to do so, relying on legislative carveouts on health coverage, paid time off, and certain reasonable accommodation laws to stay afloat. What does it mean when the Left is no longer enamored for small business? Cash may be king for socially disadvantaged customers, but it’s icky for a business owner to move money in a non-digital format. Democrats have led the effort to reduce the cash reporting threshold from $10,000 to $600, and hire more tax auditors at the IRS. “Schedule C” filers, who make up the majority of small business owners and independent contractors, always feel that they are at risk of audit, due to the vagueness of the deductible expense categories – for example, all “Repair and Maintenance” costs are reported on a single line. So, while the expansion of the IRS workforce may be targeted at millionaires, small business owners fear that they will feel the pinch. But the current differences between the Left and small business can be overcome. After all, there is a push to support Black-Owned Businesses as a method of economic empowerment. It is more of a lack of understanding by the technocratic class, who may not personally know a small business owner. For those who work at sea, it is common to hear about dreams of owning a business, but less common for shipmates to talk about the challenges of doing so.

Mama Lenders and Mortgage Lenders

 As it is today, the housing sector is a provider of equal opportunity. People in their respective economic milieus live in somewhat-integrated neighborhoods. Taking Fairfax County, Virginia as an example, Working-Class Whites and Latinos may share one neighborhood; and Upper-Middle Class Whites and Asians may share another neighborhood.

There is one group that is left behind, studies show: middle-class African-Americans, who miss out on the opportunity to purchase in the same neighborhoods that White Americans of similar economic status do. Merely calling it “systemic racism” won’t solve the discrepancy; but dissecting it will.  

Qualification for a traditional mortgage is based on the ability to repay; in addition to making a down payment. Many prospective homebuyers must budget carefully to build the down payment, by cutting out some discretionary spending.  African-American purchasing habits are similar to other Americans, although the community spends slightly more on haircare and barbeque supplies, slightly less on home appliances. Contrary to pervasive stereotypes, spending on discretionary goods (such as shoes and handbags) does not differ from other groups.

How “consumer debt” is handled, does differ culturally. In the African-American community, it is common for family members in middle-class jobs to gift, or loan on flexible terms, significant sums of money to less-fortunate relatives. This could be cash for a nephew to buy a used car for his new job, medical expenses for a parent, or college textbooks for a cousin.

In previous decades, this arrangement was highly beneficial, and even necessary to ensure a family’s security in light of the peonage, or debt-bondage, system common in the Jim Crow South. In the Agricultural South and Industrial North, young and middle-aged men had a short period of time in their prime-earning years. This relative excess would be used to support family members in more vulnerable financial situations, such as grandparents. Today, this informal system of family assurance is much better for the recipient economically than a payday loan, and better than a high-interest credit card. It, however, does not enhance the donor’s credit score; nor is the possibility of receiving mutual assurance counted towards “ability to pay” a mortgage.  

Asian-American families often have a similar practice of family assurance, but with one notable difference among the American-born: bank checks are passed instead of large bills. When financial transfers within a family are significant, traceability makes a large impact on perceived creditworthiness. When cash “disappears” from a bank account, it is assumed by mortgage lenders to have been spent. A check, written out to a relative, carries intrinsic proof as an intra-family gift.

Indeed, many members of the Black Middle Class may fall through the cracks of mortgage lenders; resulting in smaller loan approvals and higher interest rates; and consequently, less choice of neighborhood. What mortgage originators need to do, then, is to recognize this form of family assurance as a legitimate form of insurance and financial security. Community leaders should encourage the use of traceable instruments, such as bank checks or mobile apps, to ‘mainstream’ this mutually-beneficial practice in the eyes of institutional lenders.