On This Almighty Road

Many years ago I met my first entrepreneur –this man had a day job driving buses for CIE-as they were called in those days—but once a week he toured around our little estate in Sallynoggin collecting slops and we kept a separate bin for potato peels and vegetable cuttings. He collected them weekly without fail and used our waste to feed a small herd of pigs he kept fenced in his back garden. This was well before the Green party or any mention of environmental issues—most families were happy to supply him with his animal feed free of charge.
There are very few council houses these days where one could keep even a small herd of pigs but the houses in Sallynoggin whilst modest boasted large rear gardens with the corner sites having large front gardens but their rear gardens were smaller. So the ‘Slop man,’ Called to us, and he fed his pigs and obviously sold them on for a profit. He passed the entrepreneurial gene on as years later his son used to collect stale bread from the local supermarkets to feed his own herd of pigs.
As time passed I met more entrepreneurs in various stages of their development—indeed I even became one myself for a number of years with varying degrees of success. I worked for one man for over ten years and though he was basically a decent human being—he was given to a certain seriousness that one attaches to the modern version of my ‘slop man’. For example he was tight-fisted when it came to wages and expenses—often the money one earned was derisory for the amount of hard graft that was expected—but heck isn’t that what they say, keep your costs base low.
When I entered into this murky world myself I met many entrepreneurs who had set up retail businesses in the main they were nice men and women but they operated on very tight margins and the staff employed were on the minimum wage some even below it. The individuals themselves in the main worked long hard hours and I befriended a few of them. I genuinely admired these people for their get up and go attitude-and the risks they were willing to undertake so as to create their own businesses.
Allowing for all of that I am finding it extremely difficult to accept that entrepreneurs can save this or any other economy—to listen to government ministers talk the talk about our brilliant entrepreneurs is mind boggling. Many of these start up businesses, fail to get through the first two years in reality that is the case. Some enterprises fail through the inexperience of the protagonist –others fail because they cannot access the correct funding from the local banks. Many of the enterprises are too small to attract Angel capital or qualify for seed funding.
The entrepreneur is fast becoming the victim of the neo-liberal conspiracy in that small business is claimed to be its champion and the living proof of this ideology. Government ministers regularly quote how vital they are in the provision of jobs—yet they do nothing about the penal level of rates and the upward only rent reviews that cripple the said entrepreneur. When all is said and done we are expected to believe in the might of unregulated capitalism to lead us to the promised land and yet it is this very unregulated capitalism that has led us to the troubled waters we find ourselves in.
The smiling Richard Bruton is quite willing to avoid serious questions and use inaccurate information to further his thesis that the wealthy do not need to pay more tax—and that raising vat by 2% effects everyone not just the poor— (but it effects the poor far more)-and we need our entrepreneurs these great champions of our nation to continue creating jobs and they must not suffer higher taxes. This is an almighty road on which we toil I have no doubt, but I am certain that entrepreneurs will not lead us to its end. The idea of individualism is advanced by neo-liberals like Richard Bruton at every turn—in the same breath as promoting this brand of capitalism he congratulates the new government for reforming the public service. This reform he speaks of is basically a clear out, in cutting job numbers and closing down vital services.
How the world has changed since the slop man called once a week and how funny that a government should reform the public service its predecessors destroyed as they acquiesced to all demands for the sake of expediency.