Thursday, September 13, 2012  Embrace System D? A Royal Society
pops the heretical question  One in five owners of businesses in
the UK started out in System D/the informal economy, according
to a new report by a British NGO. And almost 2/3 of those who
ran businesses without getting registered or incorporated
reported that they did so to determine if their enterprises were
viable--while only nine percent said they turned to the informal
sector in an attempt to cheat the government and make more
money. What's more, almost half of all merchants polled agreed
that working in System D "is often a necessary step as part of
the journey towards becoming a successful entrepreneur.”  The
study--produced by the Royal Society for the encouragement of
Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and based on in-depth
interviews and a survey of 595 business owners across the UK--
concludes that government should take a less punitive approach
to System D businesses--and should cajol and encourage firms to
formalize rather than pr