This was an interesting take on the job holder versus small business owner dichotomy.
There appear to be two different stories here - frugality is good up to a point, and you should be a small business owner.
I think we all agree that frugality is good up to a point, but I wish the latte example wasn't so overused. Personally, I think that a latte is low hanging fruit - it is just as easy to make a coffee (especially instant) as to get it from a shop and an office coffee machine (though more expensive than instant) encourages networking. Getting rid of the expenses you don't really need, without any extra cost, is definitely low hanging fruit. There are always bigger money improvements you can have, but his low hanging fruit example is not really low hanging fruit, because it takes a lot more time and money to implement than kicking the latte thing.
Most small business owners I know do not have much money, even with the tax breaks they get. On several occasions, people I worked with left work to start or expand a business, and all of them came back after a time because it wasn't working out for them. I do have three relatives who started highly successful small businesses, but they are swamped by the hoards I know who have not succeeded in getting a living this way.
Not only that, but it can be a concern about how to retire from a small business. Unfortunately, a huge number of small businesses are currently owned by baby boomers - after all, they are the largest generation ever, so it is reasonable for them to own more of the small businesses. Many of these people are nearing retirement age, and are having to walk away from their business, as no-one wants to take it over. Any person wanting to ER relatively soon needs to take this demographic trend into account if they are trying to start a small business and sell it for their retirement nest egg.
However, I am not happy with two premises of the article. One is the premise of the article that tax is bad. Sure, you shouldn't pay more tax than is reasonable, but tax gives us all services that we as a community have decided to pay jointly for, so it is part of our responsibility as good citizens to pay tax. Each nation/state/community decides differently what the tax dollar will pay for - my tax dollar might pay for roads, garbage, health, unemployment, police and gun control laws while yours might pay for a different set of things.
The second is that everyone should end up with as much money to spend as they can. The MMM philosophy appears to me to be based upon the premise that we can all have enough, and that enough is enough - we don't need more. I guess that is when we retire.
