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Comment by k__ | Hacker News Reader

I always have to think about this when people say "buy more at small businesses!"

Most small businesse owners I met were just as shitty as the ones of big businesses, they just weren't as smart as them.

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There is also the issue that big companies are usually watched more and have regulatory teams making sure they follow rules. I believe in the UK that small businesses are far worse for minimum wage violations.

I have a few friends that work no-skill jobs and the stories they tell me...

Small businesses are far worse at all regulatory compliance, because unlike big businesses they can’t afford a compliance department. I see this as more a problem with excessive regulation than small businesses, but reasonable minds can differ.

And yes I’m a strong proponent of worker’s rights, it just sucks that being a small employer is a kafkaesque nightmare. I know one who was recently fined for paying his employees too much because they happened to be migrant workers.

Small businesses usually can't afford the army of lawyers and lobbyists necessary to make the regulations that favour their company. Meanwhile their bigger competitors more often do. All in all, more regulation often favour bigger players simply because smaller players aren't able to comply for a variety of reasons, usually due to economics at scale, but also because they simply don't have access to, or can't afford proper legal advice. Being fined out of the blue, and not knowing why, is often a result of this, for example, though you can always argue that not practising due diligence may lead to criminal negligence or other such liabilities. There is a way to fight that, though, and that is with business associations and interest groups.

This is something people don't think about when they claim that the skilled trades should be a viable alternative to college education. Most employment in the trades is with small or family owned businesses, where labor laws are rarely enforced. And with family businesses, your prospects hinge on whether you belong to the family or not.

It also means people might be more willing to go into those trades if they were ensured of better labor law enforcement, health care, safety net, and so forth.

I haven’t largely seen this to be the case. First, as far as regulation, in the US, most trades still have to contend with code and with the local union. So aside from work in truly dismal municipalities, there is a floor to the quality of the job.

Second, there is at least a legible path for new entrants with reasonable starting pay.

Third, there actually are a number of decent companies, and nepotism doesn’t necessarily mean getting screwed over, just a need to advance elsewhere.

Fourth, there is a viable freelance path in many trades, or at least the ability to make oneself a biddable item (play residental vs. commercial, alternate between multiple trades, hourly vs. project-based, etc.)

Fifth, where there is significant activism for the trades there are people and organizations trying hard to improve the experience and results.

I don't doubt one bit that the average small business owner is roughly as shitty as a manager at a large chain.

But I don't think that undermines the core motivation behind "buy local": all else being equal, buying local is still a way to improve the resilience and diversity of your local economy. We shouldn't let the fact that managment/ownership appears to be generally morally corrosive taunt us away from doing something that's otherwise just.

That being said, some owners are so reprehensible that buying at a mega corp is the better choice. A local business to me was boycotted out of existence after they had a meltdown on Facebook when they were criticized for their support of the fascists that tried to overturn the election on Jan 6.

Certainly. “Buy local” is a decision weight, not a categorical principle.

That’s a pretty extreme case and an exception to the general principle of preferring to buy local. Some local shops are owned by assholes, it’s true, but usually you can just shop somewhere else locally. Almost all big corporations exploit their workers, the environment, or society to a certain degree. Unfortunately there are some things you cannot avoid using big companies for, because they hold a monopoly or technological advantage on the product or service.

This reminds me of a local business owner who, in the span of a week,

* made a big rant on his company Facebook page about Starbucks and law enforcement, advocating for a boycott

* made another big rant about the local pride parade

* made a rant that was half "woe is me" and half "everyone is a sensitive snowflake" after people started boycotting his business for his remarks

Unfortunate political views aside, I was tickled by the prompt response from the public and his visible confusion of "Wait, I can be boycotted??"

Buy local should be about local production and not local retail. A lot of small businesses just resell shit they buy online

Reminds me of the guy who used to own a video rental place and would fire his employees before they had worked there long enough to accrue benefits.

IMO, every discussion about small business tyrants and major corporation worker exploitation should come with the disclaimer that small businesses have far far wider variability than major corporations. Harm at scale comes from places like Amazon. The most egregious abuses toward individual employees (in the modern era), however, are almost certainly from the small business side.

Very tangentially, most academics I have met think of themselves as democrat socialists, but run their labs like authoritarian libertarians (sounds a bit like an oxymoron, I know).

It is an oxymoron, you're thinking of a military style. It's solidly authoritarian, but commanders in the field have freedom to make certain decisions independently in recognition of the limits of pure top-down command. That freedom is not borne of e.g. recognition of the rights of man as it is in a libertarian state.

In general I've noticed there is surprisingly little correlation between a lot of people's political, religious, and even moral beliefs vs. their personal behaviour.

This includes myself, by the way. But I do try...

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