With small business workshops left and write these days, it was nice to come across one that was a little out of the ordinary, and which catered to a group of men and women who we see a lot of in war, but not much – at least in the media world – in the world of business.

An April 13 Small Business Administration workshop will provide information on loan programs, technical assistance and government contracting including the federal economic stimulus.  Keynote speakers will share information on technical assistance and government contracting. You can learn how these programs and services can help you in your own business planning.  There will also be information on what lenders look for in this economic climate in regards to loans and lines of credit.  Presentations regarding service disabled veteran-owned businesses and VA sponsored Employment Programs.

The event begins at 4 p.m.. Registration begins at 3 p.m.

It’s at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital, 11301 W. Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

Defenders of market capitalism always point to companies, rather than the government, as the key generators of wealth in society.

And for the most part I agree that business should play this role. But a recent report seems to put a dent in that idea.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that large companies that have held on to their bottom lines are reluctant to hire, because of jitters about the economy and worries about health care costs. (here’s the link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rich-companies24-2010mar24,0,395617.story)

The report’s sources point out that hiring is right around the corner.

Let’s hope so. Because if companies with relatively healthy cash flows don’t hire — even when they have loads of cash — then this idea of the social value of the market will take a serious hit, and “supply-siders” will have lost a golden opportunity to prove they are right.

Instead, if healthy companies don’t ultimately start hiring, that would mean that our economy is truly caught in a vicious cycle: Firms won’t hire because they are worried about a sluggish economy and sluggish demand; people will remain unemployed, which means they won’t have the money to create that demand; and firms will continue to extract more and more productivity from fewer and fewer people.

In the end, companies will get or stay rich, and consumers will stay poor. Reagan’s “supply-side” economics – in which wealth is supposed to flow from top to bottom, will have been nothing but a pipe dream.

What is becoming more apparent every day is that we need a new industry, new kinds of products that create demand…and ultimately jobs. Either that, or we’ll simply have to rein in our appetite for wealth.

Conservatives can point to excessive government intrusion as a monkey on the free market’s back. But that doesn’t seem like much of an argument when you can’t people to buy your products.

Hopefully, the Internet wasn’t the last great new industry….