Faceless, mechanized, dehumanizing profit maximization, or the personal, in-your-face viciousness of a petty tyrant lording over a fief. Tough choice.
Small business owners are tricky because maybe you open up a pizza place because you genuinely love the craft of making pizza and want to become an integral part of your neighborhood, or maybe you open up a pizza place because you want to see your name on a big sign.
It's calculated, efficient, clearly motivated evil verses narcissistic, deranged, inconsistent evil.
The reason the latter often feels preferable is it's a devil you can understand. I can analysis the haute-bourgeois and predict their actions with some accuracy, makes them easier to organize against. For all I know my local petty-bourgeois is one citation for improper sewage dumping away from driving an armored bulldozer through my house.
As I've explained to my co-workers in restaurants before, they're no better morally than any other business owners they're just too egotistical or stupid to just follow the easy money and open a franchise, which makes them more unpredictable and dangerous.
Like you think they wouldn't own large businesses if they could? That remaining small is their goal? Fuck no, your mom and pop store's dream would be to be Wal Mart. They're the capitalists coming near last place and don't deserve your pity any more than another richer capitalist. The exploitation is the same and it's harder to organize against a business where the owner is there every day.
Absolutely. A coworker today relayed their cousins path from coin op carwash owner, to PPP loan multiple car wash owner, to PPP loan apartment owner. Dude’s still actively seeking to acquire more.
I think about this story often:
They called the cops on a disabled guy for playing the trumpet outside their store in the middle of the music district.
