System should encourage self-employed to prosper

Rural Nebraskans have the reputation of being self-reliant, and the latest Nebraska Rural Poll shows that reputation is well-founded.

Self-employment is the fastest growing employment segment in rural America, according to the Internal Revenue Service, and actually accounted for all net job growth in non-metropolitan Nebraska in at least one recent year, according to Randy Cantrell, a Nebraska Rural Initiative rural sociologist who's part of the University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources team that conducts the poll.

Not surprisingly for rural Nebraska, 65 percent of the self-employed households in or near the smallest communities have a farm or ranch, 43 percent have an ag-related business, 45 percent have a nonag-related business and 17 percent have a contract service to a company.

A quarter of the households with self-employment get at least 76 percent of their income from self-employment.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents in or near towns with populations under 500 have some type of self-employment, compared to 34 percent of those in or near communities of 10,000 or more.

Why are so many rural Nebraskans self-employed? The simple answer is, you almost have to be self-employed to survive in some small communities. If self-employment involves a farm, the job requires the reasonably priced land that rural areas offer.

But since the poll shows that 45 percent have a nonag-related business, there's proof that Nebraskans are diversified, probably thanks to broadband Internet and other opportunities that modern technology offers.

Since so many of us depend on self-employment for our income, it behooves state, federal and local authorities to make it easier for the self-employed to do their jobs. Taxation, zoning and other government regulation should be kept to a minimum.