Most American businesses are tiny proprietorships despite employing few workers

Evidence

In 1971 there were 12.5 million businesses in the United States. Well over three-quarters of these were small individual proprietorships— primar­ ily farms, stores, restaurants, auto repair shops, and the like. Less than two million were corporations. Much of the work performed in these small businesses we would label “independent production.” This sphere consists of a large number of family or industrial enterprises where one or several workers own and control their tools and facilities, and where they work independently perhaps with the aid of small number of apprentices and temporary employees. Second, there is a large number of entrepreneurial enterprises, owned by one or two small capitalists who are often from the same family and employing a number of hired workers. Firms of the inde­ pendent production and entrepreneurial type comprise more than 90 per­ cent of all U.S. businesses, although they account for only a little over a quarter of the paid work force. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 621

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to arguments about dual/segmented labor markets and the persistent small-business sector that schooling systems must serve, echoing the book’s larger point about reproducing diverse labor hierarchies. — connects to: Tech companies employ far fewer workers than mid-century industrial giants — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 15

Broader Connections

• Tech companies employ far fewer workers than mid-century industrial giants #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 15