RE: Re: 1,000 firms run the economy

[Max Sawicky]

Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the U.S. Government -- FY2003,
page 48, Table 3-4, National Wealth

mbs


 Almost all Intro texts include a section on types of business,
 sales, etc.,
 they they all show that propritors are numerous, but essentially
 irrelevant
 when it comes to sales and employment.  The one text that used to
 go beyond
 this basic point was Heilbroner.  He noted that ownership of assets, and
 thus control of decision making, is more important than sales or
 employment.
 The last edition of his text indicated that 3600 firms with assets in
 excess of $250M (0.018% of all firms) owned 80% of all business assets
 in 1990.

 I have tried to update these numbers several times, but I haven't been
 able to get all the info necessary.  Maybe Eric can help.

 It is easy to get the number of firms by type.  It is easy to get firms
 with assets in excess of $250M.  What I have not been able to nail down
 is total business assets in the US.  I have found total Corp. assets, but
 I have not found proprietor and partnership assets.

 Any ideas Eric?

 Doug Orr
 ---

 Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 11:57:58 -0700
 From: Eric Nilsson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: [PEN-L:26609] 1,000 firms run the economy

 Well not quite...

 But data I just put in my spiffy text is:

 Number of firms with 1-99 employees in the US: 4,800,582 (or 98% of all
 firms with employees)
 Number of firms with 10,000 or more employees:   936 (or 0.002% of all
 firms with employees)

 Number of employees working in firms with 1-99 employees:
 40,091,449 (or 36%
 of employees)
 Number of employees working in firms with 10,000 or more employees:
 29,715,945 (or 27% of employees)

 That is, fewer than 1,000 firms control the labor of more than 25% of all
 employees in the US economy. These same firms, of course, control a large
 part of the surplus generated within the US economy also. A large
 proportion
 of workers, however, work for very small firms (less than 100
 employees) but
 none of these firms is really very important (economically, politically,
 culturally, etc).

 I would never argue a political strategy of pitting small firms
 again the
 giant firms. Rather, I point out the role of these giant firms to
 underline
 that way that the decisions of a relatively small number of firms
 (over what
 to make, what sort of jobs to provide, what ad campaigns to run,
 etc) has a
 really big impact on the whole economy.

 Source http://www.census.gov/csd/susb/susb2.htm. US Census Bureau,
 Statistics of US Businesses, 1999 data

 Eric








 

RE: Re: 1,000 firms run the economy

[Eric Nilsson]

Doug Orr wrote,
 It is easy to get the number of firms by type.  It is easy to get firms
 with assets in excess of $250M.  What I have not been able to nail down
 is total business assets in the US.  I have found total Corp. assets, but
 I have not found proprietor and partnership assets.


Data from BEA asset and investment data:
http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/faweb/AllFATables.asp#S2
You might want to look at table 4.1 for, I think, total assets and breakdown
of assets by type of ownership.
This publication has lots of data on assets, breaking them down into many
different categories. Be aware, however, of the different ways they use to
total up assets (current replacement costs, historical costs, etc). I would
be reluctant to combine asset information from different agencies as they
all might have different ways to determine the value of assets.

The Census of Manufacturers must also have assets data and might break it
down by form of ownership.

And, for more on type of ownership and assets you might look at IRS data

IRS Data book _might_ have something
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/taxstats/display/0,,i1%3D40%26genericId%3D16907,0
0.html

IRS studies of various types might also have something.
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/taxstats/display/0,,i1%3D40%26genericId%3D16810,0
0.html
lists statistics by topics. Topic for partnerships and corps has
spreadsheets with asset information for these two forms of ownership.
Somewhere here I think proprietorships are also listed or information on
them is given somewhere. Sometimes not logic exists as to what the IRS
chooses to study. And there data is often many years out of date.

Eric