Take a look at this:

[M]ost of those 20 million nonemployers earn very little money, that 65% of them are home-based businesses "providing small incomes for mostly part-time owners." About half of sole proprietorships had less than $10,000 in receipts in 2005 and 81.8% had receipts of $50,000 or less.

Now, I pulled this snippet out of this week's article on small business financing research because I wanted to bring your attention to those low, low numbers.

A lot of economists would look at those numbers and say that these are marginal businesses that don't even need to be discussed in the context of the U.S. economy. Individually or collectively, they are simply to small to matter.

Some of them would even say that they are a drag on the economy and should be discouraged as an impediment to overall growth. These misguided folks should instead be encouraged to go out and find a ‘real' job.

And there are also a lot of economists who would look at those numbers and decide that these firms don't need help or even attention because the fact that they are low-revenue, part-time endeavors must mean their proprietors want them to be low-revenue, part-time endeavors.

I guess I don't even need to tell you this but I don't see any of that when I look at these numbers.

What I see instead are a lot of federal and state lawmakers — you know, the ones who constantly prate on and on about how small businesses are the engine of our economy — who are failing miserably and don't appear to know it.

Half of the nation's sole proprietorships earned less than $10,000 in receipts in 2005. That is a statistic that should make everybody at the Small Business Administration and every other small business support agency hang their heads in deep shame.

Do you think maybe some of those business owners needed some help and didn't get it — because all those economists and policy makers have already decided they're not worth the effort?

Do you think maybe the important thing is for people to pursue self-support and economic self- sufficiency in whatever way works for them, regardless of whether you think it works for the overall economy?

Does anybody really think that all those people worked that hard at those little side businesses because they want them to only be a part time gig?

I only have one thing to say: Get. A. Grip.