| By Caterina.net |
Article Rating: |
|
| March 3, 2009 09:18 AM EST |
Reads: |
433 |
An op-ed by my friend Reid Hoffman, in the Washington Post this morning about Startup Stimulus with some great concrete suggestions-- microlending for small businesses, and removing the cap on H1-B visas (hooray!), funding it through a payroll tax. It's absurd to think there is no "stimulation" being applied to the small businesses and startups struggling to get off the ground in the most capital efficient ways, while money is being plowed into enormous businesses that the market has already deemed dead. From out here in Silicon Valley and environs, it seems ludicrous.
This is the time for President Obama to take a page from his campaign playbook. Why stop at tapping the grass roots to debate the stimulus? He should seek to fund innovation at the grass-roots level. Obama is familiar with using YouTube and social networks -- products of start-ups and tools of the people. His administration should make it a point not only to avoid propping up failing, overleveraged institutions but to finance new businesses, back promising ventures, welcome the best foreign minds and nurture native talent. By providing incentives to American ingenuity, we can innovate our way out of this recession.
Hear, hear.
Subscribe to HP Developer's Journal Email News Alerts
Subscribe via RSS
