14 January 2009

Something to think About

A friend of mine just emailed me this and I thought it would make a nice addition to my blog:

Every once in a while, someone puts together some interesting, yet true thoughts.


To Whom It May Concern

Who ever this boss is he has it nailed down perfectly........read his entire message and the last 3 paragraphs will make total sense to you....and if you are a left leaning socialistic democrat this type of thinking just may get you to re-evaluate your sense of direction for this country. Cuba is a prime example of where we could be if we keep heading towards thinking that the government can provide for our every need.........but first get clear in your head "WHAT AND WHO IS THE GOVERNMENT'....just what does the government produce, plant and harvest, and sell to earn the money that they so freely give to those that could but do not produce and contribute to the productivity of this country. Don't remember where it came from...BUT...once! everyone is in the wagon there will be no one left to pull it.


A letter from the Boss:

To All My Valued Employees,

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 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 might 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 years 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 BACK STORY :

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5 pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit 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. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you 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 to worry about....


Signed, THE BOSS


God Bless America & God Bless Our Troops

------ End of Forwarded Message


17 December 2008

Bush says sacrificed free-market principles to save economy

US President George W. Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was, "forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from collapse".
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. We are going to implement socialism to save free market principles. That borders on absolutes stupidity and shows just how much most Republicans have sacrificed their Conservative principals.
Conservative Republicans who were in charge of Congress during the Clinton years put party politics aside and worked with the Administration to eliminate the Federal Deficit, it's been the only time in recent history that we actually had surpluses every year from our government.
Bush, along with his Liberal Republicans in congress have taken the last 4 years of ROCK solid growth and turned it into more deficits, more government spending and more complete and utter disregard for the Conservative principals that are the foundation of the Republican party. This is the main reason why McCain didn't win, because he just like Bush is a wishy washy conservative that doesn't really believe in conservative principals. It's the reason he wasn't against this whole bailout and the Keynesian theology surrounding it.

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15 December 2008

Americans Watch the Auto Industry in Disgust

Like most Americans, I'm disgusted by what's going on with our Government and Big Business. First we give a massive bailout to those fat cats on wall street as they bitch and moan about not getting their Multi Million dollar bonuses. Like a Cancer that's been given a new lifeline, these companies are out there fleecing consumers, corporations and government alike, because they've been deemed "Too Big to Fail". Stupidity and short sightedness are now being actively rewarded by our federal government and by proxy by all of us. I remember several years ago when a friend of mine in the Mortgage business told me that there were new products available to where he could give an investor, mind you not a person who was going to live in the home, but an investor a loan for 100% financing, and to top it off, they only needed a 580 credit score! Who's the Rocket scientist that allowed that program to come to the market? It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that maybe, just maybe these were very, very bad investments of company money. They didn't care though, the corrupt Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac, with their Government cohorts were buying, and they were buying everything and anything.

Now we have the Big Three. Keep in mind that your average Joe line worker in GM gets 3X what the average Joe everywhere else makes in Salaries and Benefits. They claim that hey, they've made concessions, the new guys being hired today are hired at just 14 bucks an hour, AS IF THEY'RE HIRING!!! Those are not concessions, it's passing the buck to the next generation. Let's put this all in perspective. What if your neighbor down the street made 3X your salary and to top it off his boss made 1000X your salary. All of a sudden his boss finds that he can't pay him anymore so his boss comes to your house and asks you (who makes 1000X less than him and 3X less than his employees) to bail them out. How would you feel.

That my friends is exactly what is happening now with the Automakers. The big bosses are flying around in Corporate jets, which in case you didn't know, cost around $1400 to $8,000.00 per hour. The line workers are pulling down twice what most of us are and get about as much in benefits as most of us make. But WE are the ones who have to bail THEM out? Why?

I spent last night discussing with my wife that we're going to have to cut back on my son's ABA therapy for autism, because we simply can't afford the $800.00 a month cost anymore and we're supposed to help them out? Most of us are having hard times right now and most of us are doing what we can to mitigate those circumstances, without resorting to some sort of government bailout so why should we give them one? Let them do what Sears, K-Mart, Delta Air lines and so many other companies have done. File for bankruptcy, re-work your contracts to more favorable terms, cut out the waste and get back to business.




STOP THE SCARE TACTICS!

Do they think we're a bunch of Morons, that they're simply going to liquidate all the auto companies and fire 3 Million employees? GIVE ME A BREAK. You know and I know that will never happen. There's WAY too much money to be made in the Auto industry for them to simply give up. Consider this, GM and Toyota both sold about the same number of cars last year, and yet while GM lost over 38 Billion Dollars, Toyota's PROFIT was around 17 Billion. Maybe the government should give them some tickets to Japan to find out how to run their business.

03 November 2008

Obama to Bankrupt the Coal Industry

Recently we heard in the news that the Glaciers in Alaska were growing for the first time in 250 years. Additionally, most of Antarctica is now known to have been cooling for the past 35 years. The news doesn't end there, for the Global Warming enthusiast, there's an entire list of 23 GlaciersSki Resorts were cheering as North America had the largest levels of snowfall since 1966! Around the world that have begun (or have been) expanding, mostly in just the last couple of years. The fact is, most are not tracked or measured so who knows how many of them are really growing. What we do know is that last winter, Let's face it folks, as we've said here before, Global Warming has officially ended.

In light of these latest developments however, what does our fearless "leader to be" think we should do? Bankrupt the Coal Industry!

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Obama's inexperience is once again shining though. Obviously, someone forgot to give him the memo that half of all electricity in the U.S. right now comes from Coal. Additionally, Americans are now breathing a sigh of relief as gas prices have plunged to nearly half the price they were just a few months ago, but of course, without coal those prices would surely skyrocket back up.
The U.S. has some of the cleanest coal operations in the world, this isn't China where they don't bother to filter out harmful particles and where they don't bother to put sulfur scrubbers into place. The United States has the cleanest heavy industries in the world and when we do things, we do them in an environmentally responsible way. Obviously, with the news reports that we've seen so far, the science on this issue is NOT settled and we can't let fear and loathing bring this country to the point of Bankruptcy that will cost massive losses of jobs over something that we don't even know if it exists.

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