Aristotle And Small Business Essay

The justification for the belief that the purpose of the economy is solely to make money stems from a few different ideas. First, the metaphysics of the economy as I addressed earlier, and second, looking at different principles of Aristotle’s political philosophy. The first of these principles is the idea that the government has an obligation to set a good example for its citizens so that they become good people (NE, Book 1: 13). Using this idea, I believe Aristotle would frown upon small businesses because of the bad ideals they promote. Matt Bruenig gives countless examples of the harms of small businesses such as their lack of protections against different forms of discrimination, their unfair wages, and their lack of adequate employee

If the mark of a political community is to be self-sufficient, then Aristotle would likely not support small businesses because they are not self-sufficient – or at least not as much so as larger businesses. Bruenig supports this idea by saying that our economic system actually aims to keep businesses small. By keeping businesses small, it makes it harder for them to sustain themselves and makes it virtually impossible for them to sustain the entirety of the United States which is why we have so many large

The first states that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy because they strengthen communal unity and the second states they are not because they do not promote virtue or economic growth. Nevertheless, the benefits from each argument are not mutually exclusive. Aristotle would likely conclude that small businesses are an important part of the American economy – but not the backbone. When considering the golden mean, an excessive focus on small businesses leads to a lack of growth and virtue in the economy whereas disregarding small businesses altogether would mean risking weakening communal ties and how invested the American people feel in the