Massachusetts Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has come up with yet another way to redistribute wealth and spend gobs of taxpayer cash – by using it to help minorities start their own businesses.
According to TIME, Warren’s come up with a plan to invest $7 billion in taxpayer money for grants to help “non-wealthy” entrepreneurs with less than $100,000 in household wealth. She’s calling it the “Small Business Equity Fund,” and says it’s primarily aimed toward helping aspiring business owners of color with their start-ups.
And, while the program doesn't explicitly ban lower-income white people from getting the grant money, Warren's been pretty open about the proposal's minority-focused objective, saying that the current “small business gap” between white-owned and minority-owned businesses is “another example of how the racial wealth gap in America holds back our economy and hurts Black, Latinx, Native American, and other minority families and communities.”
The money, of course, will allegedly come from Warren’s proposed “ultra-millionaire tax.”
“[Warren] also says she will direct federal retirement and pension plans to recruit more diverse investment planners, and triple the budget of the Minority Business Development Agency — an existing agency that promotes the growth of minority-owned businesses,” TIME explains.
While the notion of helping entrepreneurs of color start their own businesses isn’t a bad one on its face, there seems to be something inherently racist about suggesting that minorities need government help launch their own start-ups instead of creating in-demand products and attracting their own investors. (Or, you know, pass the SATs, or get into college, or get decent jobs...)
Then again, Warren used to be a Native American, so maybe she knows best?
Add this to the free college, paid family leave, maternal health programs, student loan forgiveness and universal health care that she’s already promised, and Warren’s stacking up a pretty hefty bill indeed.
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)