mom and pop

A bullshit term used by wealthy boomers to garner sympathy for their exploitative business practices. Often the business is under threat from possible regulation, and use of the term 'mom and pop' is a cheesy attempt to get young and less affluent people to distinguish between them and a large corporation, but often there is very little difference in principles aside from the scale. Often a large private business in the millions of dollars will describe themselves as mom-and-pop anyway as a marketing gimmick. At this point, the term has been used so frequently and inappropriately that it no longer holds any distinction, aside from making an entitled fair-weather capitalist stand out in the rain.