There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse, and this presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which may help you decide what is in your best interests.
First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner, there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve seen my big home at last year’s Christmas Party. I’m sure all these flashy icons of luxury, conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what you don’t see is the rest of the story.
I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot apartment for three years. My entire apartment was living quarters and an office, so I could put forth a 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you. Every dollar I spent, went back into this company. I drove a rusty car, didn’t have time to date or eat out, and was married to my business.
Meanwhile, my friends got jobs, working 40 hours a week, made 50K a year, and spent every dine they earned, buying expensive homes, driving flashy cars, and living it up…on credit usually. I often dreamed of living high on the hog as I saw my friends doing, but rather spent my time, money, and life, building a business. You arrive physically at 9AM, and then leave at 5PM. I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office on a Friday, you have the weekend all to yourself. I do not have that freedom. I eat, breathe, and live this company, 24 hours a day. No rest, weekends, or happy hour for me. You only see the fruits .of my efforts, worry, planning, and hopes.
Now, the economy is falling apart, and I, who made the right decisions and saved my money, have to bail out all the people who didn’t? The people who over-spent their paychecks, suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned, and for which sacrificed a decade of my life? Business ownership has its benefits, but unfortunately the cost of running this business and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of profit, and let me tell you why.
I am being taxed to death, and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, taxes on the telephones and electricity we use, taxes on the paper, water, fuel, and every facet of this business, plus unemployment taxes. I have to hire a man to sort out all the taxes, and I have to pay taxes to hire him. Government mandates, regulations, and all the BS that goes with it, now occupies most of my time, it seems. On October 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. Know what my ’stimulus’ check was? Zero.
Who is ’stimulating’ the economy? Me? The guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs, or the pregnant mother, living in public housing, and poorly raising her four other illegitimate children on welfare? Obviously, the government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. Government’s ’stimulus,’ is printing more dollar bills, thereby robbing us all and making all our dollars worth ever less.. Government’s ’stimulus,’ is hiring more bureaucrats and enlarging itself endlessly, thereby strangling us all.
Here is what many of you don’t understand: To stimulate an economy, you need to stimulate what runs an economy. Had government decided that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black hole, I would have hired more employees, expanded the business, and generated more economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed that tax cut in the form of promotions and higher salaries. Business is at the heart of America, and always has been. Even the bureaucrats admit that the economy is in the hands of the consumer. The power brokers in D.C. believe the poor of America, are essential drivers of the American economic engine. They think writing checks will stimulate the economy, while the producers are taxed to death. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Where am I going with this? If any new taxes are levied on me or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I will fire you and your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay your mortgage, your SUV, and be responsible for your child’s future. It won’t be my problem any longer. Then, I will close this company, move to another country, and retire. You see, I will be finished. I will be finished with a country which penalizes the productive, and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, my citizenship. If you should lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy. It will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the Constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach; retired, and with no employees or taxes to worry me.
Signed – Your Boss
Fictitious? Of course, and after a bit of editing, I appreciate who sent it to me and whoever wrote it originally. They’re getting ready to print another trillion or so paper dollars. On the news this morning, the Obama Gang said that his bailout package would cost from $880 billion to $1.2 trillion. (The Obamas are sending their kids to Sidwell Friends School, like other Presidents’ offspring, which almost makes me ashamed to admit that I went there!) Then there’s Bernie’s wiping $50 billion off the map, and making previously rich (in dollars) people, now penniless. Guess what? Gold and silver cannot go to zero, and are not dependent on government actions, printing presses, hedge funds, joblessness, bankruptcies, depressions, or any other thing concocted by the D.C. Gang and their Federal Reserve.
Want a terrific idea for the so called “terrorists?” (I think ’terrorists’ are just an excuse to enlarge government). Suppose Washington D.C. were obliterated? Suppose someone dropped a bomb on the D.C. Gang, and wiped them off the face of the earth? Suppose someone managed to instantly get rid of D.C. totally. Just imagine! No more wars, FBI, CIA, IRS, mandates, regulations, gobbledygook, bureaucrats, Federal Reserve, and the list is endless. We would have fifty individual state governments, who could easily solve all their own problems. Fifty state governments, who would respond to their citizenry and not work against them, as happens in D.C. Fifty states, who would all compete with each other, thereby giving us all a wonderful life, free from the endless harassment issued by the D.C. Gang. Eventually, someone would dig up a faded, forgotten copy of our now obliterated Constitution, start a small federal government, which might run a postal service, back dollars with gold, and have silver coinage. They would instantly declare the US to be totally neutral, have no troops off shore, and give no advice or subsidy to any foreign nation. Ah! What dreams come to one, as a new year comes upon the scene. Happy New Year, everyone!