Not all of them, I know many great small business owners, but a large portion are what's wrong with this country. They think owning a store, or some small service industry with a few dozen employees entitles them to be millionaires. They take great steps to ensure that the jobs they offer are of the least skill possible so they don't have to pay.
The #1 reason they won't pay a living wage is 1 word, GREED!!! They want to keep it all for themselves. And they've constructed their businesses and their realities around greed. Their world becomes one where they're the lords of their kingdom, their workers are the peasants who owe their very lives to them, the owners. They will lionize everything about themselves, they are the "job creators" who've built something out of nothing (Even though probably inherited their business). their workers become the huddled masses who only eat and clothe themselves by the good graces of their owners. It becomes a sickness, it infects every detail about them.
I recall a local home and garden center my wife worked at for a while years ago. At the company Christmas party, the owner got up and gave what he felt was his heart felt thank you to his staff. It was so self congratulating you wouldn't believe it. "My workers kid's have shoes because of me." He literally said that. Delusion. This is a man who's father and mother started a business, he took it over from them. They got extremely lucky when some of the undeveloped farm land they owned happened to be in the way of a proposed new highway, they sold their land at a premium and made millions.
A decent man, would never say, "I put shoes on the feet of my worker's children." He'd say, "my workers put shoes on my feet." There's this excuse making and justification that becomes their life because really they're just greedy and don't value their employees enough o give them and their families good lives.
The opposite is my wife's gardening business. She pays her employees extremely well, $20-25 and hour depending on the job, she is deeply concerned about their and their family's lives. She makes enough to sustain the business and pay her bills, she could dumb things down for her employees and hire less competent workers, but she wants the best service so she only hires pros who know a ton about gardening. Her workers make in the ball park of what she makes, I'd guess her salary is maybe 15-20% higher than her workers (she works at least 50% more hours than them). And this is the only way she'd do it. She would be absolutely miserable having less skilled workers who were more replaceable while she made 2 or 3 times what they make. Because she cares about people.
In order to want to get rich off the sweat of other people, you have to suspend caring for your fellow man. Doesn't mean small business owners can't be wealthy, just that there are righteous ways to do it so many ignore.
= new reply since forum marked as read
