Since year one of the Obama administration, the number of businesses failing outnumber the businesses being created for the first time in recent memory, according to Ray Hennessey, writing in entrepreneur.com about data collected by the Brookings Institution. While Brookings does not point to any particular culprit, Hennessey says its due in part to overburdening regulations. Noting a new regulation is promulgated every two and one-half hours in the U. S., he says the cost of enforcement is greater than the economies of all but nine countries in the world, causing all sizes of business to encounter higher compliance costs. He says part of the problem stems from Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, but a lot comes from small-scale regulations that choke off innovation.

He says the tax-the-rich approach has resulted in small business owners suffering because their company profits are often taxed as individual income. Where once entrepreneurs were lauded for their spirit and heroism, today they are cast just as much as villains who are trying to gouge their workers. The president has called for the minimum wage to be raised, saying it will create more jobs, but in fact the opposite is more likely true. Increased jobs and better wages are more likely to come from innovations that reflect the creative drive of entrepreneurs than from imposing regulations and taxes on businesses that tend to stifle growth, as MHProNews understands. Hennessey says: “It is fashionable to punish success and badmouth the business owner, to boot. That attitude doesn’t create jobs. That doesn’t create wealth. That only creates resentment, and it erodes the very entrepreneurial spirit on which this nation was founded.” ##

(Image credit: shutterstock.com)