A fair shot means that you should get a level playing field, no matter your skin color, your zip code, who your parents are, where you went to school, or how much money you started with in your pocket.
A fair shot means you can take an idea, work hard, and turn that idea into new wealth, new jobs, and new opportunity. That's what entrepreneurs do.
Bias toward big
Over the last two years, since moving back to the Midwest, I've traveled to many of these places, and I've seen the contradiction firsthand. In Mr. Kauffman's birth town of Garden City, Missouri – population 1,630 – citizens can't even buy fresh produce. America may be glittering at the top, but it's struggling at the bottom. We are a fair distance from a fair shot.
The inequalities are stark. Half of net new American businesses started in recent years were in just 5 of the biggest metro areas. When small businesses need capital, many reach out to banks. But large banks have become larger, and small and medium-sized banks, who are more likely to back new businesses in smaller markets, are disappearing. The smallest community banks have declined 41 percent since 2008. Today, only 18 percent of new businesses get a bank loan.
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