PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

Stangler for Medium: “The Democrats Should Talk About This Tonight”

  • December 19, 2019
  • Dane Stangler

Here is how tonight’s Democratic debate should begin:

The American economy has always been driven by entrepreneurial energy — the creation and growth of new businesses. Today, however, entrepreneurship in the United States is in trouble. Business creation has stalled; overall economic dynamism is faltering. We are experiencing what some researchers call a “startup deficit.”

How would your administration address this?

Most of the seven debate participants would be speechless, at least momentarily, before quickly running through a litany of actions they would take — some of which are tangential to entrepreneurship. A few of them would talk about the virtues of small business before bashing the evils of big business. A few might actually say the word “entrepreneurship.” At least a couple of them would be able to talk coherently about how they would tackle the startup deficit.

In all likelihood, of course, this question won’t be asked and entrepreneurship will barely be mentioned. More attention will be paid to the labor issues that almost derailed the debate. Yes: unions and the minimum wage should be topics of discussion. But, without the businesses to employ union workers and pay higher wages, those issues are moot.

Read the full piece here.

Related Work

Budget Breakdown  |  June 26, 2025

GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Would Undermine Economic Stability

  • Ben Ritz Alex Kilander Nate Morris
Blog  |  June 26, 2025

“Trump Accounts” Are a Promising Start, But Flaws Remain

  • Alex Kilander
Op-Ed  |  June 18, 2025

Weinstein Jr. for Forbes: It’s The Early 1990s Bond Market Again

  • Paul Weinstein Jr.
Budget Breakdown  |  June 18, 2025

Senate Changes to House Reconciliation Bill Are a Mixed Bag

  • Ben Ritz Nate Morris
Press Release  |  June 10, 2025

New PPI Report Finds Tech and E-Commerce Sectors Are a Powerful Engine for Local Resilience

  • Michael Mandel
Publication  |  June 10, 2025

The 2025 PPI Tech/Info/Ecommerce Job Index: Fighting Recession on the Local Level

  • Michael Mandel
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2025 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings