Family business. There are few combinations of words that can evoke such a feeling of wholesomeness. We think of the local business on the cornera grocery store, furniture shop, restaurant, or general goods storerun by several generations of hardworking family members, serving their local community in a small town that time forgot. Or perhaps we imagine the factory at the edge of town, employing the citys workers and producing the simple staples of American lifebaseball bats, or lawn chairs, or some similar important artifact of this countrys middle class. Certainly, these kinds of family businesses have been the backbone of American life for decades, even centuries. These kinds of industrious entrepreneurs have built the American dreambrick by brick, product by product, service by servicecreating wealth and expanding opportunity. This is the image of America that many politicians like to celebrate.
