PORTERVILLE POST | The Right News at the Right Time

| The Road to Rediscovering America’s Identity ~ XXIII
BORN RIGHT^© - Aug 29, 2025
with Josh Allen Flowers : josh@portervillepost.com

The Attack on Entrepreneurship
~ Why Small Risk-Takers Are Targeted ~

In the America we were meant to inherit, the entrepreneur was a hero.
He (or she) was the scrappy risk-taker with an idea, a garage, and a stubborn refusal to stay in their lane. From the blacksmith with a forge to the baker with a dream, our nation was built by people who didn’t ask for permission—they just built, sold, failed, and tried again.
But that version of America has been quietly assassinated. Today, the entrepreneur is treated like a threat. And make no mistake—that’s exactly what he is… to the system.
~ The Small Business Owner: America’s Last Free Man ~
You see, entrepreneurship is more than just opening a coffee shop or printing T-shirts. At its core, it’s an act of rebellion.
✪ You’re saying no to the boss.
✪ No to the system.
✪ No to dependency.
✪ And yes to risk, ownership, and freedom.

In a world built on compliance and control, that kind of attitude can’t be tolerated. That’s why, over the last 100 years—especially post-1913—we’ve watched an all-out assault on the small business class. Not by accident. Not by “market forces.” But by design.

“Let’s Talk About the Year 1913”

Ever heard of it? It’s when the Federal Reserve was created and the income tax was permanently installed.
Translation: the government now had full control over your money and the ability to inflate away your savings while taxing your labor.
Who does that hurt the most? Small risk-takers. Local builders. Independent creators. You know, the foundation of America.
The founding generation would’ve called it tyranny. We just call it the IRS.

And it only got worse from there.

REGULATIONS: The New Chains of the Entrepreneur

Want to start a business today? You Better Have ...
• A license • A permit • A zoning variance • Compliance with ...
OSHA, ADA, the EPA, and 37 other acronyms no one voted for.
Then there’s payroll tax, unemployment tax, city fees, inspection costs, annual renewals, fire suppression standards, environmental impact reports, and of course… the “worker’s rights” posters the government makes you hang in your break room like a hostage note.
This isn’t about safety or fairness. It’s a system of deliberate friction designed to make starting and sustaining a small business feel like trying to ice skate through sand.
And who benefits from all of it?
Not the guy working 12-hour days at his mechanic shop.
Not the woman hustling handmade candles out of her garage.

No, the winners are:
• Corporate conglomerates who can hire compliance departments to handle it all. • Unions who want to limit competition. • Government bureaucrats who need to justify their jobs. • And Marxist academics who still think “capitalism” means Walmart.

The Lie of “Leveling the Playing Field”

We were told all this regulation was to “protect the little guy.”
In reality, it’s crushed the little guy under the weight of forms, fees, audits, inspections, and endless risk.
Ask yourself: how many businesses do you know that shut down not because they had no customers—but because they couldn’t jump through all the hoops?
• That food truck that needed a commercial kitchen just to make tacos?
• That daycare run by a mother of four that got shut down for zoning violations?
• That man who wanted to sell firewood from his own property but needed a sales permit, insurance, and signage compliance?

This isn’t freedom. This is permission-based survival.

COVID Was the Final Nail for Many

2020 was like a mask coming off. The elite ruling class used a public health panic to draw a very clear line: businesses are essential. Small ones are expendable.”

• Walmart: Open.
• Your local shop: Closed.
• Amazon: Thriving.
• Your gym, your barber, your corner diner: dead.

Why? Because small businesses represent independent power. They don’t bow easily. They ask questions. They build community. They fund little league teams, churches, and school boards—not federal super PACs. Which makes them dangerous to those who want total control.

☭ The Historical Roots of This Subversion ☭

☭ Marxists have always hated the bourgeois - the shop owners, craftsmen, and tradesmen who didn’t fit neatly into their worker-vs-capitalist cartoon.
☭ So when Marxist ideology began infecting America’s institutions in the 20th century, guess who ended up in the crosshairs?
✰ The middle class ✰ The family-owned business ✰ The self-employed
These people didn’t need the government to survive—and that made them public enemy number one. You can track the rise of anti-business rhetoric through academia, Hollywood, and media. “Greedy capitalists.” “Exploitive bosses.” “Tax the rich.” Even when those “rich” were just mom-and-pop owners working 70 hours a week to make payroll.
☭ What Marxism couldn’t accomplish through revolution, it accomplished through regulation. It didn’t burn the marketplace—it just buried it in paperwork.

Why This Matters Now More Than Ever

We are in a moment of reckoning. Americans are waking up to the fact that working for mega-corps or relying on the state isn’t sustainable—or fulfilling. But what happens when the system makes it nearly impossible to go independent?

• Fewer young people take risks.
• More families stay stuck in wage dependency.
• Local economies wither.
• The American Dream becomes a Netflix documentary.

We are watching the death of entrepreneurship in slow motion. But here’s the good news: we can still revive it.

✰✰✰ How We Reignite ✰✰✰
America’s Entrepreneurial Flame

✰ Start local and start lean. Don’t wait for permission. Start with what you have. Even a cottage bakery, home service, or content brand is a win for freedom.
✰ Demand deregulation at the local level. Get involved in city and county government. Push back on the rules that crush small builders while favoring corporate giants.
✰ Stop feeding the beast. Shop local. Hire local. Support real people, not national conglomerates.
✰ Teach your kids to build. Don’t just train them to get a job. Teach them to create value—with their hands, minds, and courage.
✰ Tell the truth about risk. Failure is not a moral flaw. It’s how entrepreneurs learn. Let’s remove the shame and celebrate the attempt.

We Don’t Need More Jobs ~ We Do Need More Owners

🂡 The road to rediscovering America’s identity runs through every garage startup, every kitchen-based hustle, and every person who says “I’m not waiting for someone to hire me—I’ll make my own way.”
🃁 Ownership is not just an economic model—it’s a cultural one.
🃑 A nation of owners is a nation that governs itself. And when we rebuild our culture to reward those who take risks, we’ll begin to restore what made this country exceptional in the first place.
🂱 Because the truth is: The American entrepreneur isn’t dying. He’s just being regulated out of existence.
🃟 But the spark is still there—and it’s our job to fan it back into a fire.

What you are not changing, you are choosing.

BORN RIGHT^© ... With Josh Allen Flowers