When 'business' means 'company,' is it a countable noun?

Question

This is from The Washington Post article :

What's a company to do? In today's litigious and document-deluged workplace, a poorly written manual can lead to liability suits and even low-risk decisions are justified by streams of memos. One solution is training, and American business is already spending more on education than all the U.S. public school systems combined. But increasingly organizations are turning to another solution -- software. The next few years will see a flood of computer programs that either help writers improve what they've written, or do much of the writing for them.

I think, in this context, the plural form 'businesses' should be used because I consider 'business' to mean 'company.'

Am I wrong?

Answer 1

In this context "business" doesn't mean "company". It means "private commercial operations in America, considered collectively" (defn adapted from Wiktionary). In this sense it is uncountable. It means "the business sector" of American society, in contrast to the education, health, or government sectors.

It would be possible to rephrase since "American business" is composed of many businesses. In the same way as "American education" is composed of many schools.