No, eBay, We Need No New Rules, Just No Hegemon

Forbes Magazine, that stenographer to billionaire welfare queens, offer this:

...  6.5 million companies fall into the “very small business” category, earning under $10 million a year in revenue. According to stats released last month by the Kauffman Foundation, the pace of new business creation in the U.S. has been increasing steadily since the depths of the recession, with just over 400,000 new start-ups launched in 2012.
That does not mean that Main Street USA will suddenly be revitalized with local retailers. Instead, a new generation of small business entrepreneurs, empowered by technology, have taken Main Street digital. This phenomenon is epitomized by an advocacy group created by eBayin 2008 called eBay Main Street. Developed by eBay’s government relations team to help lobby policymakers on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses who sell through the online auction giant, the Main Street initiative has exposed some really interesting facts about the changing face of small business in the U.S. and some of the challenges they must confront.

Stop right there.  So, billionaires create an advocacy group and front run witless microbusinesses?  In what way are the interests of 400,000 small businesses who happen to trade on eBay match the interests of the billionaires who own eBay? 

Consider this statistic, released in a letter from eBay to Main Street members this past February:
“According to eBay Inc. data, over 90 percent of U.S. businesses using ebay.com are trading across borders. On average these businesses sell to 30 different countries. Comparatively, less than five percent of businesses using more traditional models trade with customers outside the U.S. On average they sell to fewer than five countries.”

So what? Explicate qualitatively those 90% of eBay businesses, their ROI and size.  It will be risible.  Look at those people who make a solid living trading at the microbiz level, with a mere five customers overseas, and you'll find a respectable ROI and lifestyle realization.

eBay wants to graft itself onto USA hegemony for reasons that have nothing to do with its economically doubtful "auction" business... 

This reminds me of the refrain "for the children..."

Whatever eBay claims it wants for "small business" one can assume the opposite is a good idea.  At the same time, Forbes is oblivious to the renaissance coming with the end of lending credit, and the era of credit deflation, what?

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