Affirmation Action Laws on Small Business Firms

This research examines the effects on small business organizations of affirmative action laws. Affirmative action legislation in the United States at both the federal and state levels of government establish guidelines for the development and implementation of social policy with respect to equal employment opportunities and with respect to the rectification of past acts of employment discrimination against selected population groups. The importance of small business activity to the American can hardly be exaggerated. Defining a small business as one with either fewer than 100 employees, or less than one-million dollars in annual receipts, somewhat more than two-thirds (67.9 percent) of all business enterprises in the United States are classified as small. These firms, in turn, account for 40.8 percent of non-government and non-farm employment, 35.8 percent of sales revenues, and 32 percent of the country's gross national product.

The fact that small businesses employ 40 percent of the American workforce illustrates the magnitude of their activity on society. Apart from this concrete impact, small business also has an abstract impact on American society. The very presence of the small business sector supports the dreams of individuals that they can, someday, be independent of large organizations. While the likelihood that such an eventuality will ever come to pass for most Americans is quite low, the co

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he allocation is such a way that someone is made better off without anyone being made worse off. By this definition, if such a reallocation were possible, then the existing allocation could not be economically efficient. This definition of economic efficiency is derived from the Pareto Criterion, which holds that an increase in total welfare occurs when someone is made better off, while no one is made worse off. Thus, if one contends that economic efficiency exists within an economy, then the introduction of a change in resource allocation to provide for equality of opportunity will be viewed as one that requires a tradeoff between equality and efficiency. If, on the other hand, one holds the position that the existing allocation of resources within an economy is not perfectly efficient, then the introduction of a change in resource allocation may be viewed as a means of increasing total welfare. Opponents of equal opportunity legislation contend that the direct provision of benefits to those individuals and groups without access to those benefits conflicts with the concept of economic efficiency. one supporting argument is that rates of return on equal opportunity expenditures will not be equal to rates of return on other a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
BUSINESS FIRMS, Milton Friedman, Pareto Criterion, Kreps American, equal opportunity, economic efficiency, affirmative action, employment discrimination, equality opportunity, racial ethnic, Relations Journal, Wilson Company, Disaster Commentary, Economic Review, Action Commentary, Modern Society, business industry, effects past, racial ethnic background, ethnic background, intended rectify effects, intended rectify, rectify effects past, sex racial ethnic, change resource allocation,
Approximate Word count = 2620
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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