Family business. There are few combinations of words that can evoke such a feeling of wholesomeness. We think of the local business on the corner--a grocery store, furniture shop, restaurant, or general goods store--run by several generations of hardworking family members, serving their local community in a small town that time forgot. Or perhaps we imagine the factory at the edge of town, employing the city's workers and producing the simple staples of American life--baseball bats, or lawn chairs, or some similar important artifact of this country's middle class.

Certainly, these kinds of family businesses have been the backbone of American life for decades, even centuries. These kinds of industrious entrepreneurs have built the American dream--brick by brick, product by product, service by service--creating wealth and expanding opportunity. This is the image of America that many politicians like to celebrate.