We have a semantic disagreement. I'm saying startup means something different to people in SV and on HN than pizzeria or local accounting firm. A better term fo

We have a semantic disagreement. I'm saying startup means something different to people in SV and on HN than pizzeria or local accounting firm. A better term for those is SMB: small and middle size business. And for startup, we reserve the idea that it is an organization in search of a business model that intends to grow very quickly. Neither is true of most SMBs. They are copying well-known business models and content with not scaling. > Legislation finds a balance between business development and quality of life for its people. This is a naive view of legislation, if only because there are many more interest groups than "population" and "big business". Legislation does not find a balance. It is the product of a complex process whose results are unpredictable, and it is heavily influenced by both the permanent bureaucracy of the state, re-election-seeking lawmakers, and all of their donors. Sure, big business is one of the donors, but money does not map directly to votes. > For decades, legislation has been skewed in big business's favor, leading to an incredible spike in income and wealth inequality. While immigration reform isn't what's best for business, it is in reaction to a growing need to help our middle class again. Immigration benefits many SMBs and society as a whole, including the communities that wouldn't have doctors if it weren't for immigrants. Big business is not the driving force behind encouraging immigration -- it's a cross class, cross-sector issue. That said, when economies go wrong for other reasons, marginalized voters tend to blame immigrants for lack of a better scapegoat. Even if you accept that immigrants are the cause of citizen's being out of work in America, which I don't, no one thinks that they're taking middle class jobs. The immigrants vilified in the news fill working class and service class roles in construction, cleaning, ag and food service. These are actually jobs that US citizens tend to avoid. But they like blaming fictional brown people when Fox news stokes the flames.