"Most new jobs won't come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We've got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality"
About this Quote
Perot’s line is classic businessman-populist persuasion: it takes an economic argument and turns it into a moral one. “Most new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers” isn’t just a forecast; it’s a rebuke to the default political habit of courting Fortune 500 CEOs with tax breaks and ribbon cuttings. By shifting the spotlight to “our smallest,” he recasts the mom-and-pop shop and the scrappy startup as the real engine of national wellbeing, not the corporate giants that dominate headlines and lobbying budgets.
The subtext is a subtle reordering of who deserves the government’s attention. Perot isn’t anti-business; he’s anti-bigness as a political reflex. The phrasing smuggles in a critique of consolidation and the fragility of communities dependent on a single major employer. Big companies can “create jobs,” but they can also delete them overnight through offshoring, automation, or mergers. Small firms, in his telling, are rooted, accountable, and multiply locally.
“Entrepreneurial dreams” is doing strategic work here. It’s aspirational language that invites listeners to identify as potential founders, even if they’ll never file an LLC. That’s how Perot converts policy into personal dignity: helping small business becomes synonymous with honoring effort and self-reliance.
Context matters: Perot rose as a third-party voice in an era anxious about globalization and corporate restructuring. The quote functions as both economic diagnosis and campaign-ready promise: if the system feels rigged toward the powerful, the fix is to retool it for the strivers. The appeal is emotional, but the target is structural.
The subtext is a subtle reordering of who deserves the government’s attention. Perot isn’t anti-business; he’s anti-bigness as a political reflex. The phrasing smuggles in a critique of consolidation and the fragility of communities dependent on a single major employer. Big companies can “create jobs,” but they can also delete them overnight through offshoring, automation, or mergers. Small firms, in his telling, are rooted, accountable, and multiply locally.
“Entrepreneurial dreams” is doing strategic work here. It’s aspirational language that invites listeners to identify as potential founders, even if they’ll never file an LLC. That’s how Perot converts policy into personal dignity: helping small business becomes synonymous with honoring effort and self-reliance.
Context matters: Perot rose as a third-party voice in an era anxious about globalization and corporate restructuring. The quote functions as both economic diagnosis and campaign-ready promise: if the system feels rigged toward the powerful, the fix is to retool it for the strivers. The appeal is emotional, but the target is structural.
Quote Details
| Topic | Entrepreneur |
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