Part 1... SME’s contribution
The “invisible hand” is a metaphor inspired by the Scottish economist Adam Smith that describes the incentives which free markets create when entrepreneurs and business owners unintentionally act in the public interest, even when this was not their intention. This happens when entrepreneurs coordinate economic activity and allocate resources efficiently.
Jeff Bezos founded an online bookstore in his garage in 1994, later becoming the world’s largest e-commerce company, AMAZON which employs today over 1.5 million people worldwide. Steven Jobs, the founder of APPLE, started in his parents’ garage in 1976, had revenues in excess of $400B in 2025. While I am not comparing apples to apples, Apple Inc. annual revenues exceed more than 150 individual countries GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Canadian Tire (CT) was founded by brothers Alfred and John Billes in Toronto in 1922, also in a garage. The original name was Hamilton Tire and Garage Ltd. Today CT employs over 32’000 people and has a market capitalization of $10B. We can conclude from these three examples that if you want to succeed start your small business in a garage, (LOL) , but they also demonstrate that Adam Smith’s invisible hand is a valid economical theory. Even the bible in Zechariah 4:10 says "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin ...”
In Canada, Stats Canada says Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s) account for 95% plus of employer businesses and employ over 5.7M Canadians, an enormous 50% of total private labour force. They contribute a gigantic 50% of our national GDP and over 40% of the total value of exported goods. Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian known for the iconic catchphrase “ I don’t get respect” would qualify to be the President of Canadian SME’s. Politicians and media-coverage is almost exclusively focused on covering large, big companies when their attention - and respect - should be directed towards SME’s.
Our government seems to emphasise overwhelmingly attention to large public projects and corporations. The spotlight is fundamentally on monetary policy. Nothing wrong with both objectives per sei but where is fiscal policy? The core engine behind GDP growth and employment.
Our government’s mission should be to help Canadians work, invest, build, innovate, and export. The role is to encourage and support, set the “rules of the game” and then get out of the way by being a good steward and cheer leader.
Saying no to our vast resources and supressing our incredible opportunities during the last decade have resulted in disastrous economical consequences for Canada. We need wise action and fresh leadership to reverse the course by managing our resources responsibly and harvesting our opportunities intelligently. Stay tuned for more. In part 2 of this article I will compare public and private activity. The bottom line is that we urgently need to embrace the Invisible hand theory or run the risk of continuing to head in the wrong direction.
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