Business support of the FairTax is an important component...especially small business. From personal experience, large associations and large international companies generally are not going to actively take a position either out of political concerns or because they feel the current system works to their advantage by giving them a comparitive advantage against their domestic competitors. In the case of large associations, the ability to game the system and the need to be protected against the system gives a continuing reason for their members to belong.
I haven't found that to be the case with smaller regional and state associations and of course, most small businesses should be supportive once they understand it, so the question is: how best to educate other small businesses and associations. Following the grass roots, many small businesses are members of local/regional associations which in turn are members of larger associations.
Imagine a database of 10,000 small business owners supporting the FairTax, letting Congress know of their support, putting FairTax paycheck stuffers in worker's check envelopes, spreading the word to other businesses, some of which join this group and help develop ideas to further the effort.
We've been working at developing tools and contacts for business in general and manufacturing support in particular over the past couple of years. National has created a beginning website to help start the effort of identifying and activating business supporters. Although it needs further refinement, that can be done "on the move." It is usable in its current form.
I have sample letters for supporters to send to businesses and for businesses to send to other businesses. I have directories of probably more than 1,000 regional local associations that each have probably 200 to 500 small employers as members. There are a few supporters that send regular email newsletters to small employers that are willing to include FairTax information, but the material to have a regular email compaign still needs to be developed and along with a method of followup. We also have lots of research white papers, testimony and other material that can be packaged to give to employers that want additional information.
If others agree this is an important approach, what is needed is more people to work on it. If you're interested in more information, let me know: wvquest@ma.rr.com
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