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PEOPLE find it hard to like businesses once they grow beyond a certain size. Banks that were “too big to fail” sparked a global economic crisis and burned bundles of taxpayers’ cash. Big retailers such as Walmart and Tesco squeeze suppliers and crush small rivals. Some big British firms minimise their tax bills so aggressively that they provoke outrage. Films nearly always depict big business as malign. Tex Richman, the oil baron in the latest Muppets movie, is so bad he reads The Economist. Small wonder that whenever politicians want to laud business they praise cuddly small firms, not giants.
It is shrewd politics to champion the little guy. But the popular fetish for small business is at odds with economic reality. Big firms are generally more productive, offer higher wages and pay more taxes than small ones. Economies dominated by small firms are often sluggish.
Consider the southern periphery of the euro area. Countries such as Greece, Italy and Portugal have lots of small firms which, thanks to cumbersome regulations, have failed lamentably to grow (see article). Firms with at least 250 workers account for less than half the share of manufacturing jobs in these countries than they do in Germany, the euro zone’s strongest economy. A shortfall of big firms is linked to the sluggish productivity and loss of competitiveness that is the deeper cause of the euro-zone crisis. For all the boosterism around small business, it is economies with lots of biggish companies that have been able to sustain the highest living standards.

A. 어휘
bundles 다발. retailers 소매업자(업체). squeeze 쥐어짜다.
suppliers 공급업자. crush 눌러 부수다, 밟아 으깨다.
minimise 최소화하다. aggressively 공격적으로. provoke 자극하다, 도발하다.
outrage 非行(비행), 분노, 무례. Films 영화. depict 묘사하다.
malign 有害(유해)한, 惡性(악성)의. baron 男爵(남작), 大실업가.
Muppets 인형극. laud 찬양하다. cuddly 껴안듯이 다정스럽게.
shrewd 영리한, 약삭빠른. fetish 숭배의 대상, 物神(물신).
at odds with ...와 사이가 나쁜. dominate 지배하다, 주도하다.
sluggish 활기가 없는, 나태한. periphery 주변, 圓周(원주).
cumbersome 번거로운, 방해가 되는. lamentably 유감스럽게도, 애처롭게도.
account for 책임을 지다, 담당하다. shortfall 부족.
boosterism 열광적인 지지.