As businesses try to navigate the economic environment in the next four years they should make a cold blooded assessment of what policies can impact them, and what the effects can be.

They all talk about taxes and regulations – because this is what they know the government is involved with, but there is a bigger concern: customers.

What kills a business is the lack of customers. Anything else can be handled, but if people stop shopping you must switch careers.

Usually a government cannot deliver customers to businesses. But it can cut off the supply. When the Government was shut down in 1995 Maryland’s and Virginia’s economies took a hit because Federal workers no longer shopped. Businesses went bankrupt then.

Now there is a new threat to the customer base: Getting people off Medicare and SNAP, or cutting benefits to millions. And any person kicked out of those programs or with benefits cut is a lost customer. (Because at bottom SNAP is a farm subsidy program).

You might not like the idea of tax money going to food stamps, but it is not your job to pass judgement on the lives of your customers. That’s their priest’s or counselor’s job. Yours is to get money from them in exchange for your goods.

If you own a small business think of this. And share it with your Representative in Congress..

ADRIANA PENA

State College

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom