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Small Business in the TINA Economy: Competing for the Scraps February 17, 2026
While the top 10% who manage the TINA Economy are fixated on their ballooning stock market wealth, the bottom 90% are melting away. Some day that might actually have consequences.
Let's start with a thought experiment focusing on soaring household expenses. Consider healthcare insurance, which has risen not just in the monthly premiums paid by employers and employees, but in higher fees out of pocket and co-pays. The value of the healthcare insurance has declined as households opt for high-deductible plans and insurers deny claims to reduce their expenses. Let's say that a household paying their own insurance seeks to lower their costs by finding a local provider rather than one of the giant corporate insurers which effectively form a cartel. They soon discover that there aren't any local providers of healthcare insurance. There may be direct primary care alliances that offer some services, but virtually all healthcare insurance in the US is controlled by a handful of corporations, a cartel with superficial competition. This is also the case for home and auto insurance, utilities, education expenses and interest on debt all of which are rising rapidly for many households. In every case, the competition between the handful of giant corporations that dominate each sector is superficial, as this is the point of cartels and quasi-monopolies: eliminate competition to keep revenues and profits high. A slew of essential services such as Internet and mobile phone subscriptions are also controlled by a handful of providers. Introductory offers that expire in a few months provide a fig-leaf of competition, but the actual cost differences are negligible: maybe enough to buy one sandwich a month, not enough to restore a stretched household budget. Other services such as auto repair and veterinary services are soaring in cost as the same cartels squeezing households are squeezing small businesses. In some cases, private equity has been buying up local services, assembling hidden cartels behind a screen of illusory local ownership. Then there's the software subscriptions employees are expected to maintain, costly credentials they must pay for to keep their jobs, and a host of similar expenses which are controlled by other quasi-monopolies and cartels. Note that these are all big-ticket expenses: healthcare, home and auto insurance, auto repairs / maintenance, utilities, etc. cost thousands of dollars annually. If the cost of a new TV declines $100, that "falling inflation" is a drop in the bucket of the big-ticket expenses that are consuming thousands of extra dollars a year. As household budgets are squeezed by soaring costs for which there is no alternative--the TINA Economy--the sum left for discretionary spending is reduced. Non-competitive cartels and quasi-monopolies controls virtually all the big-ticket TINA expenses that are soaring by leaps and bounds, leaving the rapidly shrinking pool of discretionary household budgets to the local, small-business sector which is the only sector that is still marginally competitive. So while corporations and cartels such as higher education and credentialing feast on TINA--there is no alternative in a monopoly-cartel controlled economy--small businesses must compete for the scraps left (discretionary spending) after the cartels have consumed the majority of household budgets, fattening the profits / revenues that fuel their political and market power. This is why corporate profits are soaring while small businesses are in decline: since there's only superficial competition for big-ticket expenses, households have no alternative to paying higher costs. What money is left is all that can be spent supporting local enterprises, which face the double-whammy of higher operating costs imposed by the same cartels squeezing households and the diminishing pool of discretionary income left to households. The Economic Divide Between Big and Small Companies Is Growing: Economic fortunes of low- and high-income Americans are diverging--same pattern happening with companies. (WSJ.com) --The growing divide between the fortunes of small and large businesses mirrors the divide that has emerged over the past year between low-income Americans and their high-income counterparts. --Large, publicly traded companies in the S&P 500 saw net income increase by 12.9% in the third quarter, contrasting with faltering small-business profits. --Small businesses are facing economic headwinds, including high inflation and cautious consumers, leading to job cuts; 120,000 jobs were shed in November. Small business, whose ownership and interests are diffuse, have been reduced to tax donkeys struggling to pay soaring rent, wages, utilities and overhead costs without the market muscle of monopolies / cartels to force consumers to pay higher prices for degraded goods and services. While large corporations are adding employees, small businesses are shedding employees to survive. 
Corporate profits reflect this structural asymmetry: the large corporations that have eliminated competition are expanding their revenues and profits, leaving less for the only sector that still faces competition, small businesses: 
We're constantly assured an economy where the gains follow an extraordinarily asymmetric power-law distribution is a wondrous engine of sustainable growth that benefits everyone, but the facts don't support this fairy-tale PR promoted by the winners to placate those losing ground. 
This distribution of the gains to the few and the costs to the many is not inevitable, it was the direct result of policy choices made by our political class in response to the money and lobbying funded by the few to increase their share of the economy's gains by any means available. The avalanche analogy is apt: the snowpack looks stable because the melting is hidden from view. But when a critical point that cannot be predicted is reached, the mountainside gives way. While the top 10% who manage the TINA Economy are fixated on their ballooning stock market wealth, the bottom 90% of households and small enterprises are melting away. Some day that might actually have consequences. 
This is where the TINA economy is heading: there is no alternative to system breakdown. The Middle Class Vanishing Act Nobody Saw Coming Until It Was Too Late (medium.com) My new book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free) Check out my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com Subscribe to my Substack for free My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY: Investing In Revolution Ultra-Processed Life The Mythology of Progress Systemic Problems/Solutions Investing In Revolution (2025) Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress (2024) Introduction (free) Global Crisis, National Renewal (2021) Introduction (free) Money and Work Unchained (2017) Introduction (free) A Radically Beneficial World (2015) Introduction (free) What You Can Do Yourself Ultra-Processed Life (2025) Introduction (free) Self-Reliance in the 21st Century (2022) Introduction (free) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal (2022) Introduction (free) Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy (2014) Intro (free) Novels The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher Intro (free) The Secret Life of an Asian Heroine First chapters (free) Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Investing In Revolution print $18, (Kindle $8.95, Hardcover $24 (145 pages, 2025) 
Only now do we see that we've been investing in revolution for decades--not the revolutions we thought we were investing in, revolutions in technology and finance, but in the social revolution made inevitable by the extremes that we've reached in our single-minded pursuit of private gains.
The pendulum that we've pushed to an extreme will swing to the opposite extreme, and the artifices that have propped up a facade a stability for decades will accelerate the disorder rather than reverse it. We now stand at the point of decision, and this book offers a path to a reformation and renewal that serves the shared interests of us all, not just the few. Introduction (free) Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, audiobook, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) 
Ultra-Processed Life: the substitution of a synthetic, commoditized, very profitable facsimile for what was once authentic.
Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world. As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause. This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design. Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $20, (Kindle $9.95, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) audiobook, Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) 
What if the policies to accelerate growth are no longer working because our fix for every problem--growth at any cost--is failing? We're told Progress is inevitable as a result of technology, but everyday life is getting harder, not easier--the opposite of Progress, what I call Anti-Progress.
What if the real source of the unraveling is far deeper than economics or politics? What if the problem is what we see as the inevitable destiny of humanity--Progress--is actually a modern mythology, disconnected from the real-world consequences of growth for growth's sake? We indignantly reject that Progress is a mythology, but our need for mythology hasn't gone away because we've mastered technology; we've created a modern mythology of technology that is heedless of its own consequences. To truly progress, we need a new mythology aligned to 21st century realities. Read the Introduction and first chapter for free
Recent entries: Small Business in the TINA Economy: Competing for the Scraps February 17, 2026 What Few Understand About Money February 12, 2026 Self-Employment Series #2: Ownership Is Not Freedom February 11, 2026 A Market Crash and Recession Are Bullish, Not Bearish February 10, 2026 The Banality of Evil and Those Who Said No February 8, 2026 Re-Set: Reversing the Debt-Debasement Death-Spiral February 5, 2026 Owning Your Work in a World That Rents Your Life February 3, 2026 Power and Impunity February 2, 2026 The US Economy in a Nutshell: A Few Winners, Everyone Else Loses Ground January 29, 2026 Why the Next Recession Will Be the Catalyst for Depression January 27, 2026 The Fatal Limits of the Technocrat Class January 26, 2026 The Epic Struggle Just Ahead January 23, 2026 Lessons from China's Cultural Revolution January 21, 2026
Narrative Control Made Easy: Us versus Them
January 19, 2026
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"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." 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Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. "Looking younger is mere technique; thinking younger demands creativity." CHS (10/16/24) "Tell me what's taboo and I'll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo." CHS (12/15/24) "This is the core of the Attention Economy: the ultimate addiction is the addiction to ourselves." CHS (1/28/25) "If You Seek the Truth, Look for What's Taboo." CHS (7/18/25) "My definition of self-reliance: the less you need, the easier it is to get what you need." CHS (7/26/25) "Mastery requires reading and doing." CHS (7/28/25) "The replacement of authentic value, quality, agency, choice, trust, legitimacy and experience with self-serving facsimiles is the key dynamic of Ultra-Processed Life, my term for the present-day human condition." CHS (8/12/25) "Ultra-Processed Life replaces an authentic experience with a synthetic, simulated, commoditized, highly profitable version that's superficially attractive but destructive over the long term." CHS (8/12/25) "What we see everywhere is the replacement of authentic things--including democracy--with synthetic facsimiles designed to maintain the illusion of choice and value." CHS (8/12/25) "Sometimes certainty is the enemy we don't even see and uncertainty is our most faithful ally." CHS (9/20/25) |
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