The Small-Business Hiring Outlook? Two More Years Wandering in the Desert
My company employs 53 people and is in the business of providing fabricated components to equipment manufacturers. Roughly 50% of our sales are for export, with the remaining concentrated in the Midwest where our plant is located. We would be classified as a low- to medium-technology machining and fabrication company.
In short, we have been right in the middle of the worst economic conditions since the late 1970s. I speak only for myself here, but I do know that in my circle the views expressed here are not unique or original, rather they are nearly universal. We are the people who are reluctant to hire new people in order to protect our businesses.
“Small businesses are where jobs are created” is a common refrain from politicians and pundits these days. Suddenly the entrepreneurial business owner has been discovered as the hero of job creation for the whole country. And also its nemesis: witness their stubborn reluctance to expand and hire new workers. While the majority of the commentariat attributes this reluctance to uncertainty over taxes and health care costs, the reality runs much deeper. The problem is an ever more serious concern that political Washington will cause enough damage to the economy to cause long-term conditions in which small businesses won’t be able to survive.
A seriously adverse business environment has been created, bad enough that small businesses — always fragile and necessarily obsessed with their ongoing existence — must opt for hyper-conservative financial management. The first restriction is hiring new people. Most of those responsible for creating this environment are still in place in Washington, and as long as they are there business owners will find it difficult to tack from their current lock-down mode.
This is not fear; rather it is a rational business approach to having low confidence in future conditions. Most owners have been around long enough to have experienced several economic gyrations, but this one is unique in that the political component seems to dominate the economic in what should be a time of recovery. That the rest of the world appears to be doing better by following paths that used to be perceived as American only highlights doubts about the direction policymakers are dedicated to here. We have a government dominated by ideologically driven people who show no sign of a reassessment after the failure of every remedy to work as they anticipated. Hip-deep in evidence that their actions are not working, or counter-productive, ideological blindness wins, and they continue on or even double down.
Looking back, it is certainly not hard to recognize the very significant role political factors had in leading to the recession, Fannie and Freddie chief among them. Then, in spite of 10% unemployment, the ideology of the leaders led them to impose such initiatives as ObamaCare, Wall Street reform, and carbon policies that could only hurt the very businesses that needed to be revived to increase employment. The evidence that all this was not working and likely to be obstructing a recovery is overwhelming. Yet they persist in their agenda, because that is what ideologically driven people do. Worse, the president and those around him, being ideologues, are unconstrained by popular opinion — or even constitutional law.
On what basis should a business owner believe that the worst is behind, and therefore become aggressive again? With the next election two years away?
The negative outlook is made much worse by the sheer lack of experience and competency in this government. Much has been made of the absence of business people in this administration and throughout the executive branch. There has never been a group that inspires less confidence in economic and business management, and yet there has been no apparent effort to make it even appear that it matters at all, much less build a more experienced team. Does anyone believe that business could rely on Eric Holder and the Justice Department to guard its legal interests? That Carol Browner even cares what effects the EPA has on a company? That Tim Geithner was expecting anything that has happened in the last two years? Does anyone see anything but imperious arrogance in Janet Napolitano or Robert Gibbs? Even the WikiLeaks emails convey a sense of amateurism that seems so pervasive in this government.
The point is made not in any one individual, but rather that the group as a whole does nothing to give confidence that some hugely damaging economic initiative, perhaps energy or currency related, will have any common sense arrayed against it within the circles of power in Washington. In this government being competent or knowledgeable means far less than being an ideological fellow traveler. As a result, what might have once been considered a most unlikely government economic body blow now seems all too possible. Just ask the oil drilling industry.
What is often not recognized is just how vulnerable small businesses are. They are notoriously undercapitalized, dependent on one or two major customers, with little cash reserves and limited ability to weather adversity. Individual labor costs are much more concentrated. Where a major company might follow labor costs from thousands of employees on a graph over many years, a small business might hire one person that costs 3% or more of total sales the moment that person is hired.
Mr. Pope, you could not be more right. As a small businessman who almost lost it all in 2009, my focus is to take care of the customers and employees I’ve got with any new growth that we currently experience. My employees are firmly on board that they may have to work very heavy work weeks at times so that we don’t extend the company with additional employees. They also understand that we still may have some very meager work weeks too. One thing you didn’t mention, but I am sure is in your heart, is that most small businesses care very deeply about their employees and their families. so when there is a downturn, we go very, very deep into the pockets of the company and ourselves to sustain the employees paychecks since most of them don’t make as much as we’d like.
The one good thing is that the businesses that have made it thus far are probably going to be around when things finally do turn around since they have probably learned a lot about getting by with as little as possible and are probably mentally and financially committed to seeing it through. However,one more 9/11 or stock market drop by half as we had in 2008 will probably close tens of thousands of small businesses again. Most of us just don’t have the savings and/or credit to sustain us through something like that again.
Mr. Pope how long can you hold your breath underwater?
According to the news Obama has insured his reelection by cutting everyone’s taxes and promising that; after his reelection he will even the score against inconsiderate rich monsters like you.
If you are not voluntarily giving the majority of your unfair profit to the blacks and Hispanics maybe you should consider retraining your workers into how to manufacture chop-sticks. By the time Obama leaves town the Chinese will not only own your company, they will control it and you.
With a straw?
If unemployment remains at or above 9% by 2012, Obama is going to go down as badly as Jimmy Carter did in 1980. What is very funny is that Obama is now, out of desperation, trying to implement conservative ideas to start stimulating the economy, like continuing the Bush tax rates and reducing the payroll tax. What’s next now for Obama, massive cuts in the Federal budget? I doubt, though, he’ll be able to undo the damage he has done over the past two years. It will take the country a lot longer to get out of this mess he has created.
I’m sure Congressman Weiner will do everything possible to make small businesses successful!! After all, the more money you make now, the more he can steal when death arrives!! Of course that will kill the business as well and the incentive for anyone to create businesses or wealth creation, but hey, instant gratification for weiners in the thrill of his THEFT.
The economy won’t turn around until the tax cuts are made permanent. Republicans need to repeatedly emphasize that the Obama economy won’t turn around because he refuses to make the tax cuts permanent.
Taxes are only part of it. Federal agencies – EPA, Energy, Labor, SEC, OSHA, IRS, etc… – scour the land like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
I wasn’t suggesting that tax cuts alone are the answer. Significant spending cuts and significantly less corruption are also necessary to restore confidence.
It’s like our politicians and bureaucrats sit around thinking of ways to destroy the economy. I’m amazed we haven’t crashed back to Third World levels yet.
An excellent piece, and completely truthful as well.
Brilliantly written! I too am a small businessman in construction. It is my firm belief that Obama and the democrat leadership are fundamentally opposed to the private accumulation of capital, they will do nothing to help and much to harm us. A warning to the republicans; you had better get this right over the next two years or there will be a third party and you will be destroyed.
The damage has been done. I needed a person of confidence to answer the phones when I was out for a week. Could not find anyone to work for $10.00 an hour.
No one wishes to work anymore. Everyone wants a gov’t job.
An excellent article. I would add to the list of disastrous policies:
- Slamming the lid on domestic oil exploration – guaranteeing $4+ oil prices if a recovery begins in earnest.
- Setting the stage for hyper-inflation with monetary policies which will raise havoc with international sourcing and export and energy prices
- Arbitrary and capricious policies that cause consumer confidence to swing like a pendulum – removing any predictable trend line for inventory management, sales and cash flow.
- A deficit so huge, it is impossible to envision the austerity measures needed to deal with it. It is hard to believe this will usher in a healthy economy.
Go ahead, Mr. President – give another speech. Make it all better.
So if small businesses are not going to be hiring with the Bush tax cuts still in place, we may as well raise the taxes 4%, at least after the first million. For serious deficit reduction, spending should be cut and taxes raised at about the same percent. That would at least sound fair.
Lets assume unemployment stays between 9-10%. That’s bad, but it is what it is. You cut the unemployment benefits 4%, cut government spending everywhere including the military 4%, raise taxes 4% and states tax their previously tax-free pensions at 4%, after, let’s say, the first $25,000 and hope that you have established a base from which to…survive. The actual numbers may vary, but some figure which was low, but consistent to all could cut down a lot of the posturing on both sides.
Hey, what do I know, but if Obama, Boehner, and Ryan can cook up a 4% meal, maybe we can all eat it.
Fair has nothing to do with it, Dwight. The government can have a small percentage of something, or whatever percentage you like of nothing. No job, no wages, no taxes due. Or perhaps we could round up the able bodied and make them slaves.
Obama is going to achieve equality, with all of us freezing to death in the dark. Well, me anyway. You see, “some animals are more equal than others.”
The only thing that would bring about is further demise of the small businesses that are teetering on the edge and the flight of wealthy capital out of business investment to tax-exempt muni’s. Additionally, it would throw another chaotic factor into the business environment that hampers planning.
It is time for Government to learn they are real good at harming wealth creation but they suck when it comes to enhancing it.
Hi, I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.
“Hey, what do I know…”
Apparently some “blathering” what ifs, along with Picket Fence sitting technique, Ping Pong Tongue use, a wish to control the lives of others, and an Airplane riff.
D-White, have you considered that “guvment” social programming of those who it owes existence to is not a viable situation? A business is not a classroom with persons forced to consume your product and then forced to pretend that they like it as well. And pay for it.
Mr. Pope is in business to make a profit, not to sit on a Picket Fence playing with ideas that have no merit to his present and future business situation. Get it? Profit.
Can you possibly pay attention for a bit, or has Ping Pong Tongue “Blathering” taken over completely, leaving the so called “Centrist Mind” to do what it does – vegetate.
About “Sarah-poo”?
He looked at me eyes wide and plainly said,
Is it true that I’m no longer young?
Your obsessions with certain odd images gets no one anywhere, so I will let them lie.
Mr Pope is in business to make a profit, but he throws in a lot of political judgements along the way. So it goes.
How did Clinton and Gingrich fight/stumble their way to a balanced Budget? They were forced to find some compromises. As for a 4% tax increases and a 4% decrease in government spending, if you actually thought about that for a little longer, rather than immediately trotting out your images, you would acknowledge that conservatives should grab that. When has there ever been a DECREASE in government spending? Hey, it is unlikely to happen, but it is that principle of both oxes getting gored or put on a diet that actually might achieve something.
It is like a trade in baseball; sometimes they just shell out the big bucks for free agents, but when you do a trade, each side needs to get something.
Ok D-White. Sit tight on the Picket Fence. In your own words –
Dwight
“I have been to Wasilla, though, if only passing through. As I recall, I bought boots and firecrackers at Fred Meyer. What did you get; a latte, maybe Preparation H?”
“As for lust for Sarah-poo…”
October 20, 2010 – 5:05 pm
Sigmund?
Anyway…
Interesting that being nothing can create the image that some thing is something. There was a conscious cancellation of D-White world at some point, a surrender, now becoming a tossed Picket Fence of “blathering”, that when called to task, simply asks for more of the same. That sameness that it now is non-functional The sameness that will grant falsely that elusive feeling of control and security. 4%? Really now. Why not 40%? Why not all? Why not you owe them? Slave.
The relative nature of the Ping Pong Tongue indicates that the Tongue Output itself has so many sides that Heisenberg has stepped in to direct.
It begs the question – Which way is the ball going? Ask Werner.
Putting drumsticks on either side of his nose,
Snorting the best licks in town.
And you just go on and on.
But we have something they need- the required votes to raise the debt ceiling. Thus, we have within our power the ability to give an ultimatum: Massive spending cuts without any tax hikes or we shut down the government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.
Shutting down the government? How did that work out for Newt?
So – how many people do you employ? Ever have to meet a payroll? I’ve done both. And yes, my aim was to make a profit. As much as I possibly could.
Hey, Dwighty-boy – once Atlas is done shrugging, can you guess what’s next?
4% each way?
We dont have a problem because we tax too little, have a problem because we have spent and currently spend way too much. Therefore raising taxes will be counterproductive while cutting spending will be beneficial.
Politics is the art of the….what?
As I thought. You are not – and with your mindset, never could be – an employer. You understand nothing.
I can count the numbers of people who are employees, as opposed to the number of people who are employers. You sound as if you would like your vote to equal any number of employee votes. Just to be clear, I DO want conditions to be good for small businesses to expand, but that does NOT mean you get everything you want.
Also, some people seem to have inferred that I was criticizing the author for wanting to make a profit. That was not my intent. I was noting, simply, how POLITICALLY (eventually) he framed his message.
I have had 35 employees whom I supervised, hired, evaluated, and fired for many years, but I did not have to generate the money for their payroll. Small business owners, since their businesses essentially are their lives, treat everything which relates to their business as if it were life and death. 4% means death to us all etc. Granted, I can afford to be more philosophical about the matter, but that does not make me wrong. The problem will not be “solved/improved” by people who think EXACTLY as you do.
D-White, Didn’t you write on PJM that you taught High School English as a career?
Hmmmmm, let’s see here. Errant righties, Picket Fence, Ping Pong Tongue, blathering, centrist claims, Sarah-poo, Wasilla, Fred Meyer, 4%, 35 employees, Quabbin… What else is in the mix?
But Lather still finds it a nice thing to do,
To lie about nude in the sand.
Mr. Pope: “My company employs 53 people…”
D-White: “I have had 35 employees whom I supervised, hired, evaluated, and fired for many years…”
Wow D-White. Ping Pong Tongue Numerology! Neat! 3 and 5. Put the statey pension on that!
Dwight
“Just to be clear…”
“Granted, I can afford to be more philosophical about the matter…”
December 20, 2010 – 8:16 pm
Please be clear D-White. Kick in some Picket Fence Philosophy too.
I once had a job,
or sha1l I say,
the job once had me…
Mr Lucky wrote “D-White, Didn’t you write on PJM that you taught High School English as a career?
Hmmmmm, let’s see here. Errant righties, Picket Fence, Ping Pong Tongue, blathering, centrist claims, Sarah-poo, Wasilla, Fred Meyer, 4%, 35 employees, Quabbin… What else is in the mix?”
Plenty. Especially when compared to a guy whose small business apparently consists of keeping little computer files on PJM commenters and creating his own theater of the absurd scenarios for them.
“…odd images…”
Theater of the Absurd D-White? So the PJM Archives are a personal repository for just one person?
Ok. You should have a look sometime.
Here’s a little absurd tidbit, and it now showing in the Theater of… PJM!
The Ping Pong Tongue sets it up with –
Dwight
“I have had 35 employees whom I supervised, hired, evaluated, and fired for many years, but I did not have to generate the money for their payroll.”
December 20, 2010 – 8:16 pm
Must have been a big gig D-White. Really, rising to such an important position and all, like “for many years”. That is “for many years”, in your Tongue, so to speak.
Then there is this –
Beyond Politics: Removing the Progressive Drag on America
This fight requires much more than a few moments in a voting booth.
September 11, 2010 – by Jeff Perren
D-White Raps!
20. Dwight
“I spent my whole career in education…”
September 11, 2010 – 2:10 pm
Dwight
“Yes, many of my peers talked of revolution…”
September 11, 2010 – 3:16 pm
Dwight
“The tests forced us to expect the more limited students to do more of the hard stuff, whereas before, it was possible just to do easier “higher interest” things which would not cause as many problems and student frustration. A good teacher can still do the material he/she has a passion for; maybe not all of it but some of it and adjust all the material so that the skills get taught.
“My school went from English electives for the last three years of high school (which was the case 35 years ago)…”
“…because one teaches more to the test and has to exclude more. But I have been over that ground before.”
September 11, 2010 – 7:56 pm
So D-White, what is it? “Blathering” Teacher? Or “blathering” on about “I have had 35 employees whom I supervised, hired, evaluated, and fired for many years”. Now now D-White. Careful… archives. Absurd isn’t it? Yeah, of course D-White alone made those “peer” decisions. Of course.
Were you in on the Giant Kielbasa rip off in Chicopee some years back too?
His mother sent newspaper clippings to him,
About his old friends who’d stopped being boys.
Mr Lucky, since you remain obsessed, go into good suburban high school and see if you can figure out some of the people who do the hiring, supervising, evaluating, and firing. It might even be in the PJM archives. It will undoubtedly set you off on another tangent of epiphanies. So it goes.
D-White, do teachers do the hiring and firing? Isn’t that an administrative function?
Didn’t you state at one point that you were a teacher for many years. Deflect D-White, deflect. But never answer the question at hand.
Call yourself whatever you want, but a kindly term would be disingenuous.
If you did supervise, no big deal. If you have nothing to hide, then why not state the facts? But this leads to an illustration of something that is much more… intrusive.
D-White, think of the government. What is happening? The government is consuming vast amounts of information and resources. Far beyond what any other entity existing in the U.S. does, far beyond any rational usage, all with the force of law. The Picket Fence Position is that submitting (“compromising”) to this is a good thing. With all the blathering Ping Pong Tongue you do, you miss two salient points. The growth is unchecked and the size is unmanageable, D-White rationalizes with the Some Day defense. Someday all will be well. Someday. If we just do more of the same. You persist in dredging up so called solutions that perpetuate this cycle, and further, the D-White mind closes off those who would sound an alarm, with the classic Modern Liberal attempt to marginalize. Make no mistake, D-White is well trained. Give away your freedom if you wish. Others may not be onboard.
If bit of PJM public domain archive scanning is distasteful to D-White, and in this case, requesting an explanation for comments put forth by said D-White, imagine what a petty government bureaucrat can do. All within the “law”.
But wait, oh Lather’s productive you know…
We could take your jumping to/making up conclusions, as one of the main beefs I have with a lot of the over-the-top responses here. And then because YOUR projection of what I am ends up lost in inner space, I must be “disingenuous” and now we can throw in “well-trained.” Knock yourself out looking up my stuff in the archives; I have seen no evidence yet that anyone here really knows what the hell you are in your ping pong with Lather in Wasilla mode.
How about an 8% cut in entitlement spending and no tax increase?
Even better, how about a 50% cut in entitlement spending and no tax increase?
Get my drift? The productive people in this country are tired of supporting leeches and parasites who not only contribute nothing to society, but are in fact a net drain.
Plenty. Especially when compared to a guy whose small business apparently consists of keeping little computer files on PJM commenters and creating his own theater of the absurd scenarios for them.
Kudos Mr. Pope! An excellent piece. The two most important things I feel you mention are that we are in the most difficult economic times since the late 70′s and the question of whether the Republicans are up to the task. Massive inflation is looming just around the corner again and if the fiscal conservatives in Congress don’t hold the line we are in for some real bad times.
Mr. Pope is completely correct, IMHO. Look however for a resurgence of the middle to high end domestic housing market as folks of middle level wealth invest more in their principal residence both as a comfortable refugee and as a tax break. Keep in mind too that there will be a huge liquidation of wealth as the baby boomer generation retires. In other words, a lot of “Mr. Popes” are saying “chuck it, I don’t need this” and liquidating their companies — if there’s anything worth selling, that is.
Wow, this article hits home better than any other I have read.
As a small business owner (farmer) ready to hire the first employee after 4 years I just can not see it happening. The risk is just too great. There is business out there ready at the moment for the taking. But we have to gear-up 9 to 12 months in advance to go after it. Will it still be there next year?
As an owner of a prior business I can tell you that the first employee is a huge burden on the business, yes a burden. That first employee’s salary in the beginning is a big hit to the company’s cash flow and the bottom line. But the real cost is all the additional expenses that come about because of government regulation, expenses that do not exist for a business until that first employee is hired. Then there is the time cost in complying with the regulations and paperwork.
No, no employees yet. Diane and I will continue to work the longer days and weekends. We just had four days off (thanks to a very nice customer) to visit out of state relatives for Thanksgiving…the first days away from the farm in four years.
If the economy was better or there was more money in the bank the risk would be worth taking but a mistake now could literally cost us the farm.
This was all forseen….
Atlas Shrugged.
Excellent piece, mister Pope’s, and it should be read by everyone in Washington DC – and compliments to PJM for hosting it, since no major paper dares/ cares to publish clear-eyed and compelling articles like this -
I just went through LA Times, and their today’s entire content has much less weight than mr. Pope’s article -
“ONLY GOVERNMENT can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy — where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.” – Barack Obama Jan/2009
“It is ONLY GOVERNMENT that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs.” – Barack Obama Feb/2009
“YOU LIE!!” – Joe Wilson Sep/2009
You’ve articulated the dilemma all small and independent business owners face. My midwestern region crashed in 2007, so local small business cash and energy reserves are beyond depleted. Budgets have already been slashed to the bone. Every owner I know is fighting to stay afloat and rebuild a small cash cushion, but inflation is eroding buying power at precisely the time we need it most. The next step for many? Pare down more (translation: layoffs), sell off (layoffs) or shut down (layoffs).
Speaking solely for my own small business, we need to do a major restock, upgrade core technology and software, replace aging or slow equipment, expand marketing efforts, etc., etc., etc. If it breaks and it’s crucial, I’ll replace it. Expand? Extend? Grow? Hire? [Insert maniacal laugh here.] Ain’t gonna happen in this climate.
Actions speak louder than words. Obama’s “laser-like” focus on job creation has at every turn translated into actions that crush small business. Thanks to the Obama crowd and their pernicious policies, this rollercoaster ride is far from over. Brace yourself …
Mr. Pope;
well written. As we used to say in the Corps, “outstanding”.
As a retired owner of a small manufacturing business, former manaufacturing operations manager, and high tech middle management, I can say you’re “right on”. One thing that should be added, and one commentor alludes to it, is that regardless of how we voters change Congress and the Executive, the bureaucracy remains entrenced and self-serving, even radically leftist.
The Congress, if it should happen to become pro-business, must increase it’s oversight vigor, and defund the radical bureaucrats as necessary to aid the small business effort in the US.
Exactly, which is why Dwight’s “compromise” is more failure. How about leaving taxes where they are, and reducing the Federal workforce to where it was at the beginning of the Clinton Administration?
Those were, after all, the days when everything was rosy per the so-called liberals.
You have run out of other people’s money. You have indebted our children and grandchildren. You have exhausted our credit. No more.
I too own a small business and think this article sums up our positon well. Evidently economics and business are beyond the ken of most, especially public sector employees. Obama’s appalling ignorance, on so many issues, is my biggest surprise of this administration. His election speaks volumes about our electorate. My confidence is very much shaken and I look to 2012 for some indication that America wants enterprise and wealth creation versus European socialism and security and decline. This lack of confidence very much affects my enthusiasm for continuing in business.
I was laid off at the end of 2009, and found myself in business for myself. Surprisingly, I built it up pretty quickly — two clients that recaptured my old salary and then some. I will hire only if necessary, but this article is right: There is uncertainty what the rules are and will be, and what money will be worth. You have to be very conservative in that environment.
It’s hard to explain to progressives just how disconcerting the election of Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration (in that order) were to business people, people who actually meet a payroll. But the uncertainty went beyond that — there was also a sense that the GOP had betrayed us. So the uncertainty goes beyond Obama.
Essentially, for eight years we heard the Democrats scream bloody murder, and then they were in charge and started to shove things down our throat left and right. Well, then deal with the capital strike.
Here’s the thing. Even if Obama’s gone, the set of assumptions that he operates off of are still very much democrat party orthodoxy. Remember who said this?
Hillary Clinton, 1993.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/reiland/s_557486.html
They simply don’t care.
Thank you for this. Nothing teaches you about the real world like owning a small business – not just the economy, but the real world of adults where it takes real work to survive, live and hopefully thrive.
This essay speaks to anyone who has to make a payroll every two weeks, or provide a product or service for a paying customer. Politicians and public employees have no clue. We are either at the beginning of a revolution or in the early stages of a disaster. As an optimist I believe in the former, but it is too soon to tell.
Good luck to Mr. Pope and all the rest of us who are the engines of the economy and ultimately of human life. From farmers to artists, it is the producers who make life possible.
Hiring steps:
1) Set up records for taxes, local,state,federal
2)Verify eligibility –
3)Register hire with the state
4)Workers’ Comp
5)Register unemployment insurance
6)Post notices
7)Make sure workplace is safe
8)Employee rights
All these steps must be touched again and again, making sure you are in compliance, for many agencies. Keep informed about changes. There is more..
Do you really want to add another worker, or start a business?
Better to pay overtime or use agency.
Wow. What a great article, packed with infomation and hard truths.
Can there be any doubt that this regime is dedicated to driving small businesses out of business? They don’t want to deal with a herd of ants when the GE and Health Insurer mega-criminals have so abundantly indicated how they will suckle at the fascist teat and reverse the flow of milk when the obamaster demands it. Like fascist regimes throughout history, they want a handful of elephants ready to dance on the head of a pin to retain their gazillionaire bonuses.
The best small businesses can do is hunker in the bunkers and pray that this pestilence also will finally go away.
It will, but the chill that has been sent to the backbone of America will last for decades, perhaps forever. If it happened in 2008, why would any rational person in the future think it cannot happen again.
I belive the marxists will lose this time, but it is more than possible that even in defeat, they will have achieved ultimate victory.
Look people, the “Anointed One” makes his chess move’s and us babbling humans need to realize that the unbelieving conspiracy “heathen” understate the issues when they say that Obama is a radical. Alas, they know not the secrets we are all going to witness. The “Anointed One” is amazing (and according to Biden: he’s so brillant), and takes the people at the highly efficient Post Office and sends them right over to the Student Loan Program. The “Anointed One” knows all. Twitter messages were machine-gunned to cell phones at mach speed. Facebook and MySpace groups spread across the Internet like digital fire. YouTube videos featuring celebrities ricocheted across the globe and into college students’ in-boxes with devastating regularity. All the while, the Obama mega-money-raising engine whirred on at high speed, until the result became inevitable: an unthinking mass of young voters marched forward to elect the “Anointed One.”
I am not surprised to hear these stinking lies about our “Anointed One,” it should be apparent to anyone that this was coming down the pike. I do have a couple questions about future process steps concerning these developments? When the “Annointed One” decides to start bar-coding everyone, will we get to decide if the mark is on our hand or forehead? Allot of people will prefer the hand, (especially women of course), unless your a porn actress or something along those lines. Also, my girlfriend was wondering if the Administration will be getting fashion advice from Hollyweird or the New York City crowd? We are both agree that the Administration “Maoies” as the “Anointed One ” so lovingly calls them,will be getting uniforms similar to the SS uniforms in Germany in WW2. With big letters abreviating “Barack’s Socialists.” So shall we start calling them the BS?
Ideological; this is what the intellectually elite are and will probably forever be. They have their pet, “untested” theories that they are determined to implement on those rare occasions when they get the chance, like right now, convinced that, given enough time, they will transform a primarily defective nation into the glorious utopia their theories predict with absolute, prescient certainty. All those previous attempts that failed miserably were just not structured and implemented correctly, a circumstance they are certain their implementation will overcome.
The realities that Mr. Pope so effectively portrays are of no consequence, coming as they are from a free market, Capitalist oppressor, an exploiter of the ignorant masses employed to enrich the employer to their considerable detriment. He and his ilk have had it their way for too long and look at the sorry state the country is in but, they, card carrying members of the intellectually elite, are in charge now, the recent election results are not unexpected given the “economic disaster” they inherited because of the “failed policies” of the Bush administration and they will circumvent any pesky, Constitutional interference from Congress using “socially corrective”regulations issued by Obama’s Czars, the shadow government.
Of course, compounding the severity of this problem is the relative ignorance and complacency of the electorate that remains enthralled with their leader and all to willing to submit themselves to dependency status, hands out for whatever freebies the Government is determined to provide in their efforts to redistribute the wealth. And, as they lament their sorry state of self imposed poverty, they’re enraged with the likes of Mr. Pope, a member of the “evil rich” that worship at the altar of Profit, not paying their “fair share” of the tax burden, thereby irresponsibly causing the massive deficits and their aforementioned “sorry state.”
America will continuously struggle with this class warfare mentality and economic ignorance until our illustrious education system hires some folks who can teach, from K through 12, how the system works so that ambition and the work ethic can be substituted for useless envy and cooperation and collaboration can be substituted for toxic antagonism and confrontation.
We are guaranteed equal rights not equal outcomes and are envious of those who are the standout achievers but let’s not let envy turn into hate; rather let it turn into motivation, acceptance and satisfaction in being able to participate in a culture where the only limiting factor is our own limitations. America did not become what the professional radicals adamantly refuse to admit, the greatest, economic and military power on the planet in just its roughly 234 years of existence by emphasizing the rights of the collective and an assault on individual freedom. Despite all of our faults, many of which have been corrected and the many that remain, we are what we are because of Capitalism, free enterprise, emphasis on individual freedom, personal responsibility and the rule of law. Collectivism, government controlled industry, the growth of entitlements and treating the Constitution as a “living” document will set us back decades and eventually destroy what we’ve all come to take for granted.
The current regime both dislikes and fears small business’s because they are so numerous, free and above all harder to control. They would much prefer for innovation to be co-opted, or squashed by the big guys who at some level they can do business with.
Democrats (with a lot of RINO help) have been at war with US business for 40 years.
Obama is merely the latest of these progressive wonders who have done NOTHING yet know EVERYTHING.
Business has lost.
This is an interesting article with valid points. However, I think it is naive and blatantly ignorant to ignore the impact of the previous administration has on our current economic situation. The Bush presidency ended in disaster (financial meltdown)! The business ethics of Cheney and Halliburton pillaged the tax payers (missing money, poor quality work in Iraq, NO BID CONTRACTS! etc). So you may want to dust off those rose colored glasses of yours and re-evaluate where you place your blame. Sure Obama deserves some but you are nothing more than a partisan hack if you fail to give Bush-Cheney the credit they deserve.
Let us not forget the banksters that refuse to lend money to small business!!!! The banks that Good Ole’Boy Bush bailed out love to hate small business!
Show a little gumption small biz people. Revolt! If enough you refuse to abide by the rules and regulations being churned out by supertanker load by the MMMs (Marching Marxist Morons), the whole wretched structure of treason will collapse. A few of you will prosecuted for standing up for your rights, but the majority of you will survive and put the USA back on the road to genuine economic growth the international respect that will accompany it.
Mike Gallagher
Seoul, South Korea
yeh, that’ll work.
Defying the feds and the irs is a proven strategy for success. And Barry Chicago is such a tolerant dictator anyway.
What an idiot.
So where’s your line in the sand? Do you have one?
I have had 35 employees whom I supervised, hired, evaluated, and fired for many years, but I did not have to generate the money for their payroll. Small business owners, since their businesses essentially are their lives, treat everything which relates to their business as if it were life and death. 4% means death to us all etc. Granted, I can afford to be more philosophical about the matter, but that does not make me wrong.
Well, well, well. That explains a great deal, Dwighty-boy. I’m soooooo glad that you can afford to be philosophical about these things. At best, you sound like of of those Dilbert-style management types that people fled at first opportunity.
And yes, we small business owners who plow the vast majority of our profits back into the business do find small things like a 4% bump in costs onerous – something you airily dismiss as a triviality. The attitude behind your reply clearly demonstrates that you’ve never had to make the kind of decisions that small business owners have to make every day. Most of us work for what amounts to minimum wage or less to get things going, and unlike the Scrooge McDuck vision that you leftist types have of us, most of the time, we’ll go personally short in order to keep our employees with us.
In conclusion, I suggest that you stop making an arrogant fool of yourself about things you don’t understand. Try owning and running a business instead of merely managing a group of people. I’ve done both and there’s a world of difference between the two situations.
Arrogant, eh? Check out all your responses and tell me that you are not way up there on the arrogance meter. The adults might take a time-out from the Obama-bashing to consider the trade-offs of a 4/4/4 scenario. And it is not a 4% increase of all your expenses, just your taxes, after the first million. Just pretend that you thought of the idea and it may grow on you.
No, no, no Dwighty – you’ve got it wrong once again. It’s not arrogance. It’s contempt. Contempt for economically illiterate, God-complex-driven, narcisstic know-it-alls like yourself who seem to think that more confiscation of peoples hard-earned money and more regulation (google “cost of compliance” and get back to us on that one, eh?) is the road to utopia.
And if I’ve got it wrong that you’re an economic illiterate, then I do apologize for that one. Because, if that’s the case, then it’s actually worse: that means you damn well know what you’re advocating. Which renders you nothing more than a minimum wage, low rent version of Phillip Drew, Administrator For that, a rope and a lamp post.
“Road to Utopia?” I wrote nothing about regulation and compliance. You hear what you want to hear.
My goal is to present a way to address the danger that the country would go bankrupt. With the feel good tax bill that just passed, NOTHING was done to address the deficit. Business as usual.
Did it enter your thick skull that I included a 4% REDUCTION in the Federal budget and a 4% tax on previously untaxed state pensions for the amount over $50,000. The left will go crazy when they hear that, whereas, you are already crazy. (which may qualify you to be the VP on my ticket.) Say “nattering nabobs of negativity” three time fast. Manwhile, I’ll start printing the campaign posters: “Big brains for small business.”
My brother lost his life to leukemia 3 years ago. And what does this have to do with this discussion? I’m glad you asked. In this life, he was a financial entrepreneur and gifted with a tremendous intelligence. If he was here today (as he did in the past), he’d be in the midst of this, crossing swords and dueling with a relentless passion. Today he stands on the “strees of gold” conversing with his Lord and Savior. And now he knows. And I know he loves me but he just can’t stop laughing….
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