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Guest Post: This Is Small Business in America: Burdened, Crushed, Doomed
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
This Is Small Business in America: Burdened, Crushed, Doomed
If you make it increasingly costly and risky to open a small enterprise, then no wonder unemployment remains high.
You hear a lot about Kafkaesque stifling bureaucracy in Greece and other struggling European nations, but America's Status Quo is trying its best to destroy small enterprise with taxes and crushing bureaucracy. I am self-employed, and have been for most of my life. When I did take a paid position, it was in other small enterprises or local non-profit organizations.
I mention this because there is an unbridgeable divide in any discussion of small business between those who have no experience in entrepreneural enterprise (i.e. they've worked for the government, NGOs/non-profits or Corporate America their entire careers) and those who have.
There are all sorts of similar chasms that cannot be crossed and which quickly reveal a surreal disconnect from actual lived reality: for example, the difference between actually playing football--yes, with pads, a muddy field and guys trying to slam you to the ground--and being an armchair quarterback who's never been hit even once, never caught a pass or ever struggled to bring down a faster, bigger player. (And yes, I did play football in high school as a poor dumb skinny kid who mostly warmed the bench for good reason, but I lettered.)
At the extreme of this disconnect, we have armchair generals screaming for war who have no experience of combat or war as it is actually experienced.
You get the point: it's very easy for well-paid pundits who have never started a single real enterprise or met a single payroll to pontificate about "opportunity" and small business as the engine of growth, blah blah blah. It's also easy for those with no actual experience to reach all sorts of absurd conclusions about how easy it is to turn a small business into great wealth. (No, Bain Capital or other Wall Street outposts of financialization are not "small business.")
In real life, it's only easy to run a small business into the ground, especially when there's a thousand tons of junk fees, taxes and useless bureaucratic requirements on your back. Lest you think this an exaggeration, consider that it took two years and $200,000 to open an ice cream parlor in a vacant retail space:
"Ms. Pries said it took two years to open the ice cream parlor, due largely to the city’s morass of permits, procedures and approvals required to start a small business. While waiting for permission to operate, she still had to pay rent and other costs, going deeper into debt each passing month without knowing for sure if she would ever be allowed to open.
“It’s just a huge risk,” she said, noting that the financing came from family and friends, not a bank. “At several points you wonder if you should just walk away and take the loss.”
Ms. Pries said she had to endure months of runaround and pay a lawyer to determine whether her location (a former grocery, vacant for years) was eligible to become a restaurant. There were permit fees of $20,000; a demand that she create a detailed map of all existing area businesses (the city didn’t have one); and an $11,000 charge just to turn on the water."
There is nothing mysterious about the cause of this Kafkaesque Status Quo: each city, county, state and Federal fiefdom must justify its existence and payroll, and everyone in each fiefdom will fight with every fiber of their being to protect their turf. Politically, it's a fight to the death to trim even the thinnest slice of bureaucracy, and so little if any ever gets trimmed.
Nobody will care until the city, county and state's revenues collapse as people opt out of supporting the bloated dead-weight of the Status Quo with their own sweat and blood.
The only way to survive is to not have a "real" business, i.e. you write code in your living room or parents' basement, or you do enough business in the informal sector (cash) to support your high-cost formal business.
Taxes and bureaucracy are not just urban phenomena, as this insightful report from Eric in Texas shows. Eric draws a critically important causal line between the stifling of small enterprise and high structural unemployment: if you make it so costly, risky and burdensome to start a business and hire people, then no wonder unemployment is high and will stay high.
One of your recent posts made me think of how difficult reinventing communities and coming up with creative solutions for the problems of unemployment and displaced people in our society is. I think it has to do mainly with the way in which lower middle class / middle class people are overburdened with taxation. As you stated in your post, the amount of taxation is staggering. Especially for the self employed, like myself.
My wife and I pay much the same percentage taxes as you listed in your post. I live in a rural area of Texas and from time to time small acreage properties go up for sale around our home. If we wanted to buy some adjacent acreage for the purpose of inviting a few of our friends, who are teetering on the edge of unemployment and facing the prospect of real poverty, to live next to us and help each other grow food, take care of livestock and find creative self employment opportunities in our area together, the resultant burden of taxation would prevent it.
For example, as I see it, my wife and I would now be paying property taxes on two properties, one would not have the homestead exemption. Any "improvement" on the new property, e.g. a small house built for our friends, would only increase the property taxes. We would also have to consider, if we planned to live together in this way long term with the major contribution of our "unemployed" friends being their labor and time invested in our communal living experiment, what kinds of taxes we might be subject to in the future based on the way we are using each others time and energy to achieve solutions for food production, child rearing, shelter, etc. I don't know if we would be subjected to any taxation in doing these things only assuming we might be.
To attempt to sum up my reaction to your post, I will make a list of what I think would impede a lower middle class person who has some discretionary income and could provide a small house and small acreage for the benefit of a few friends on the brink of poverty, with the view to the arrangement being ultimately beneficial to all involved.
1. Increased property taxes
2. The possibility of providing mandatory health insurance through "Obama care"
3. Taxes and or restrictions on what produce we can sell through farmer's markets or through the Internet, e.g. the recent crackdown on raw milk sells, and "cottage foods" like goat cheese, homemade pies, homemade canned goods, etc. In other words, if our whole way of life is to produce locally grown food for ourselves and our extended "family" and this is threatened through excessive regulation and or taxation, I wonder if it's really realistic to pursue.
4. In Texas taxes are rising, even in this recession school taxes, property taxes, fees, etc. are all going up.
5. Federal taxes look like they are poised to increase.
If I didn't have to worry about taking on the burden of all these forms of taxation, property taxes being the most onerous to me, I might could use what capital I have to invest in a communal living arrangement that I would hope to be of benefit to my family and some of our friends.
It's the idea, ultimately, that I want to reinvent my community (for me that means bringing friends in close relationship in mutual work for mutual benefit) and provide opportunities to contribute. But if that means having to tangle with bureaucrats over how much more I now owe because of my desire to do these things, I think I will be doing better to try to take care of myself, my wife, and our children, and leave the rest of my loved ones to prayer and occasional modest charity.
In short, if we were not taxed every time we tried to do something, we just might damn well do something!
Let's focus on getting rid of property taxes, and other forms of ridiculous taxation so that we can free up our energy and time to do the very things you advocated so well in your post.
I realize the benefit to myself and so many of some forms of government assistance, for example food stamps, child tax credit, energy efficiency rebates.... I think good government programs could be sustained if we did things like close our military bases around the world, brought the troops back to the states, and made education and real estate much less expensive, and allowed people to grow and market local foods without encumberance.
You wrote:
Here is the ugly truth about the Savior State, welfare state, social welfare state, or whatever you choose to call the Central State: The Savior State displaces and destroys community and social capital. By making individuals dependent on the Central State for free money, free food, free housing, etc., then the State has taken over the natural function of community.
In my opinion, it is also that the Savior State displaces and destroys even the potential for ( my main point) community and social capital. By placing oppressive, punitive, discouraging, and unreasonable forms of taxation on individuals who may otherwise extend resources of capital towards helping their neighbors, friends, and even family. In this way, then, the State has decided to oppress and retard the development of communities.
Well said, Eric, thank you. Before you jump in to "correct" this view of small enterprise in America, first list how many enterprises you have started, owned or run, and how many people were/are on your payroll.
If you think it's so easy to get rich in small business, then here's the keys, and payday's on Friday.
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Government and politicians pay a lot of lip service to the small business man. But that is about all...
I also had employees around that time...NEVER AGAIN.
I will gladly take less money but enjoy my life. Running a "legit" business is NOT worth it... even aside from the fact that it feeds the beast.
My start up is 5 years old, growing now after 3 years test marketing. After having been an avid reader and onserver regarding business and finance for the past 35 years, I have come to a number of conclusions:
1) If the business is not profitable at a small scale, and you need a substantial capital investment to come to a break even point, then you are on a bad business path.
2) Your product needs to be profitable at small volumns, so that as you grow you have room to adjust prices downward to undercut competition.
3) A small product for a reasonably small price in volumn appealing to large numbers of people is better than high end, high priced, low volumn markets.
4) make sure you are the only employee, and farm other stuff out as you need to.
5) buy great product presentation from the get go
6) Make the retailer profitable
7) Make the retail customer happy
Regarding #5: www.elance.com
Overseas smart, educated and driven on meritocracy. The way it should be. I spend more on this site than the GDP of a small African country and I don't deal with employees with bad kids in school from 3 different relationships, attitudes and bullshit.
I actually am not too concerned about the amount of taxes and fees. It's the complexity that's infuriating. So much wasted time trying to comply with the law. No clear answers or directions, just big STOP signs all over the place.
I started my own law firm last year. Moved into my own office. My wife helps me for "free" and we just do schedule C income. I haven't hired anyone yet, although we could use some help. It's not just about the amount of taxes to pay; it's also about how confusing it is to start up. I was going to be charged $100 per month just to do payroll -- and they wouldn't even get started until I navigated the state tax world and got them a bunch of information. I tried, and gave up.
I'm busy as hell, and it'd be great to have a secretary working here part or full-time. But I haven't been able to find the time (working for free) to sort out how to pay someone in compliance with all state and federal tax laws.
and its too bad that small businesses have competitors who don't have to comply with any laws, don't have to have any insurance, don't have to have any compliance officers, etc.
Yes, like McDonalds which gets an exemption from the Obamacare mandate to provide health care for their employees. That's a perfect example of corporate fascism or some call if crony capitalism. If you are in the mafia family you are exempt from the tyranny brought by the government stooges that you own.
That goes for so many things in which the gov is involved. Whenever i in my life so far was pissed at institutions, it was less the involved costs but the complexity, uncertainity and in quite a few cases outright psychoterror.
It goes for small business requirements, homeowner requirements as well as so called entitlements/benefits. In many cases i as well as many other people would be "okay" with the current taxes/costs/benefits, even after the former have been raised and the later lowered a few times.... if only the process would be simple, predictable, and not as degrading.
aaron, there are plenty of bookkeepers out there who will come and do your company books and payroll for a nominal fee. I set up my mom's business (6 figures annually) for that and it costs her $2.5k/year. Her bookkeeper also does all the associated state and federal filings (quarterlies, etc.) and that's included in the fee. Check out your local freelancers union, craigslist or ask a cpa for a recommendation.
But I haven't been able to find the time (working for free) to sort out how to pay someone in compliance with all state and federal tax laws.
Hire your office help as subcontractors, not employees. Give them 1099s, not W2s. You then don't have to worry about complying with tax laws. The empoloyees are responsible for all their taxes.
One small detail: The IRS distinguishes between employee and contract worker by asking if the worker can exercise complete control over when and where they work. If you dictate when and where they work, the IRS will call them employees, regardless of what you call them. But only if the IRS has reason to check into the structure of your business. If you are small enough, you will probably never cross their radar.
But if you do cross their radar, you can be ruined, and many have been
This is very true. For several years I had my own business and my own business license for my city, and I operated a self employed bookkeeping and accounting service. That was the key. I paid my own payroll taxes. I was able to do the work for about 1/3 of what an employee would have cost them because I went int did the work and left. And I did it on my own schedule. I love it and I thrived, and I made friends doing it.
And you forgot about the cost of our litigation society to small businesses.
make an off color remark, send a cutie patootie email, fail to offer healthcare, have too many white employees and hello lawsuits.
I could expand my workforce but I wont. Instead I hire independant contractors, 1099 them and find creative ways to make deals work without hiring addtitional staff.
My fellow business owners tell me they are doing the same. Its just not worth the paperwork, hassles and fees to bring on more emplyees.
Why can't you contract them as our corporate overlords do?
I am an accountant by trade. Open an S-corp. It is usually a few bucks and you get a lot of benefits. Not least of which is less audit scrutiny.
You can hire a secretary:
- Temp agency
- An Indian outsource. All communication through email and phone. Google it.
- 1099 consultant.
- Money under the table.
Don't do any accounting business with anyone who wants money "under the table". You want someone who is willing to stand up and fight for their work. The most important thing I taught my Daughter is to declare all her income on her taxes. It helps in ways you would not think of. I declared every cash pay payment I ever earned. If you ever get into a pissing contest with someone, just think how it would look if you had not declared the income on your taxes! My Daughter was able to save her self from losing a $50K investment by fraud from a dishonest partner, because she was clean and the partner who tried to defraud her was not. Not paying taxes on income is not an option.
www.Elance.com
Meritocracy. Everything on a rating system. No slobs to slow you down. Craigslist is for the birds.
<giggling drunkenly> And You're a Fucking Lawyer?
Who do you think created this shit?
I am a minority owner in an S-corp. We employ over100 people and have profits close to 10 million a year on almost 40 million in revenue. We are also growing at over 20% a year. Because we are an S-Corp the 10 million in profits shows up as income to the owners and is taxed at 35%. So the federal government takes 35% before we pay for growth. Growth in our company has eqauted to 20-30 new employees a year, the last couple of years. If the top marginal rate is raised because weasels who pay less than thier secrataries in taxes advocate for it, we will pay the full top marginal rate. That directly affects our ability to expand and hire more people. In other words it will kill jobs, at least at our company. I say, go ahead and make us business owners the evil rich guys who dont want to share, but dont wonder why unemployment isnt improving. In the end we are just trying playing the hand we are dealt, and will respond to government policy in the way that best serves our customers and employees. That often means that the intended consequences of government policy are seldom what happens in real life.
...Why are you not off-shore?
Totally.
The world's central banks are now securitizing trash BUT the difference but the central banks ("CB") securitization and prior securitization is that this current CB-sponsored securitization will ONLY reach consumers in the form of inflation, NOT in the form of credit liquidity.
I serve as a M&A adviser to the growth end of the middle market, firms with c. $20M - $300M of revenue.
Have been chanting "SIZE matters. Grow or go. In 5 years lower middle market will be $300M of revenue, there will be virtually NO small businesses under $100 as WalMart, big box retailers will render the specialty stores to the sidelines as the credit which powered specialty stores never returns".
In this world size matters, intellectual scale or financial scale. Too many small businesses will be bankrupt in the next 5 years as they don't understand this point.
I wish American who ran small businesses would read ZeroHedge and realize that since the securitization market died, so did all the cheap working capital and senior bank loans.
There will always be room for innovators who remain small and fly under the government's radar. Being big is just an invitation to the regulators and tax thieves.
"Being big is just an invitation to the regulators and tax thieves."
Yes, to buy them out. That's how we have become a corporate fascist state. The international banks and huge corporations own the governments.
Whale-Mart is not doing so hot either. They've closed 50 stores in AR & are not replacing people who quit or thru attrition. Earnings call 4Q, tailored for the street. There's a Super center that was built 3 miles from my house. It's brought crime & now the parking lot is close to empty. Me thinks with oil so high & 2 degrees of seperation, it's going to get fugly when it hits.
Let me know when they close that one in Bentonville...
WallyWorld's work in AR is done - from a state of small towns, with "town squares" surrounded by local shops and small business owners, to HUGE UGLY MEGA-STORES on the outskirts between towns, all subsidised in by the town councils.
now that they've removed any semblance of self-reliance and community - they'll suck up their BILLIONS and look for other places to suck dry like the parasites they are.
*spits*
Oh, how do you survive on 6.5 million. You republican free market cunt! Just cut back, buy generic brand food, do staycations and drive an old car. Fuck you and your paying for growth bullshit. You sir, are what is wrong with this country! 6.5 millions tax free profits and you are crying poor. Fuck you again! If you have the economic need for more employees, you will hire them. Owner taxes don't control demand for your product. So fucking sick of this republican job creator bullshit. Keep waiting for the next Frank Luntz directive you greedy, vacuous fuck !
At the margin is where all business decisions are made, including hiring. If u make it fifficult or expensive at the margin then that next guy doesnt get hired, but go ahead with ur ignorance and delusions.
I dont have a secretary because it is too much work and too comolicated to have one. It might help me peofit ten thousand more a year, but at the margin it increased my aggravation too much. I will jyst make ten thousand less and have twenty thousand dollars in less aggravation and wasted time. I value my free time and mental healrh too.
Amen brother. Longing for the good ol' days. If only you could still hire some broad for $5 an hour with no benefits who would let you pinch her ass and look down her shirt. Damn gubmint always fuckin with the small business man!
Bangin? You a little Schizophrenic?
Being sarcastic. This site is so polluted with subhumans. It never occurred to me to be clear that my sexist, horrible comment was sarcasm. My bad!
I dont think you have ever depended on owning and managing a small business as your sole source of income. Unless perhaps your business depends on consulting to others about government comolexity, a useless value stripping business such as health care compliance audits or a tax attorney.
My guess is most here were giving you the benefit of the doubt that you might have something intellegent to say. My bad!
Banging is looking for her next sexual harrassment scam settlement. Conflating small business owners alongside playboy multi millionaires shows me this person's axe to grind is any target with a penis. Sorry honey, but us small business owners are going to keep it VERY lean, a handful tops.
And my screening process to get a job is several references both business and professional which means the feminazi brigade is screened out. No laws broken just no jobs either. People outside America have no idea the seeds of the current destruction of the United States came through Family Law.
Small business are mainly middle class. In these times, the rich escape taxation and the poor have nothing to tax.
Is there anything new under the sun? I live for the laws of physics, knowledge exponents and the singularity. If not I would be too annoyed with parasitical thinkers like penis-hating woman to bother doing anything.
The cycle of the robber lasts about 40 years. The producers are crushed, especially at the end of the cycle. In about eight years, producers and innovators get there rewards and will be considered precious. Until roughly that time (2021) if you stay as a small business expect more difficulties. Sometimes it's worth it and sometimes it isn't.
So i guess in ur world it is either accept 40,000 new business rwgulayions on a federal level in 2012 so far or go back to the days of robber barons. For any quantity of revenue more people can be hired if regulations were sensible and efficient.
I think your spell checker is set to Gaelic.
Its his money, not yours.
And for him, maybe its not enough.
Who are you to tell him how much he can make, how much profit is enough and how much he can keep.
How much in tax do you pay when you sell your "rocks" in your community?
I applaud success. Just don't fucking whine about paying taxes. Move to another country if the taxes are so burdensome.
No.
I would rather cheat.
So you keep making more regulations and the pipylation will become increasingly non compliant, begetting more regulations and even more gamesmanship.
The socialist belief that society can be perfected if we just keep adding more regulations will doom us just the same way it has doomed others.
Norhing i can do to stop it. I will protect and hide my small stash and take care of my family. Nothing else i can do.
"Cheating" is requiring a piece of the action from hard working Americans at the point of a gun!
No. This is our country, that is until a breed of leaches like you descended upon us to steal our prosperity. One day we shall see who leaves.
Take kare what you wish for, komrade.
You sure are one cheerful individual. You know what is funny is I remember a bunch of Neocon idiots telling "leftest" that if they didn't love this country they could leave it too when Bush was in office and all the Repubs were doing a bunch of war drum beating and chest pounding.
I see you are having a hard time communicating to friends about your difficult situation.
Go to church and say a few hail marys. You will feel better just sitting in a pew.
Get a new positive outlook on life and seed positive thoughts. Those positive thoughts should grow in those around you and reflect back on you. They can show you a way out of your dark place.
I hope things work out for you in the end.
Nice bit of sophistry there - $6.5M AFTER TAX profits becomes $6.5M "tax free", with the unspoken allegation that somehow he's avoided taxes on it. Also, the OP said he was a minority owner. Maybe his stake is 5%, and he gets $325k a year. I won't be holding any tag days for the guy, but really $325k is not "rich". Sure, he has a nice house and car, but it's not like he jets off to Gstaad to ski each week, or owns a yacht. Class envy, much?
BTW, I'm not rich by any standard. I'm surviving on $12/hr right now, and I can only do that because MY employer has me working as a contractor (which he can do since he doesn't specify hours or place of work - works for him from regulation/taxation, and works for me as I don't have to shell out payroll deductions like CPP/EI/tax up front, and by the time the year's done, I don't owe any of them.) Working from home 3 days a week saves me 10 hours in commuting, which I get to spend on my business plan.
So the federal government takes 35% before we pay for growth. ... we will pay the full top marginal rate. That directly affects our ability to expand and hire more people. In other words it will kill jobs ...
This is an argument repeatedly advanced by certain voices in the media. I don't understand the argument. The government taxes our profits so we don't have enough money to hire new people. Not! Growth is a business expense. It is tax-deductible. The salaries of new-hires are paid for with before-tax income. And those salaries are a business expense - which reduces taxes owed.
So how can you make the argument that the federal government takes 35% before we pay for growth?? You pay for growth with pre-tax income, not after-tax income.
Exactly! You made my point better than I could and you didn't even need to use the word cunt. Thanks
How about a dick to go with your cunt and fuck you, you stupid cocksucker...are you even a business owner you piece of crack-smokin shit? Do the planet a favor and microwave your nutsack and then your head. You can finally do civilisation a favor and become a carbon-sink.
I'm just the run o' the mill gay jewish black small business owner who is happy to pay his taxes and abide by the laws of the United States. I happen to be successful enough, and choose to not blame the government for any problems I have. Sadly, Zero Hedge has been overrun by teabaggers, preppers and other lonely, broke losers. I still enjoy the articles, but I detest the crowd.
Well, good bye Bangin. We will all miss you "as much as we can"!
Kill yourself. No one will miss you.
You actually detest yourself but you don't know it yet. And if you find ZH offensive, why bother coming here at all? Oh right, you enjoy trolling the 'articles' even though they conflict with your what? Huffpo and Daily Koz await your sorry ass. Bangin7gramrocks...um, yes, you exude the type of intellectual, open minded, independent thinker ZH normally attracts. Fuck yourself into a black hole of silence, keyboarded or otherwise, you useless piece of shit. Your mother is calling from upstairs, you left your skateboard in front of the door again...
How about a medal?
Dipshit. In the real world in a new business you work a shitload of hours, take what risks you have to and make what money you can. You still have bills and expenses. When you are starting up, business/clientele/jobs/work- is not all guaranteed. You hustle and get what you can when you can. You make as much as you can while paying bills and hopefully you have a profit at the end of the year. You may do fairly well and realize you do have a profit - then you do your taxes... That's when you really see that the govt is fucking robbing you. If you don't have the $ to incorporate or have an acct or lawyer you get raped in self-emplyment tax.
Your little rant sounds like a lot of esoteric bullshit. While growth may be tax deductible, you have to have the $ to pay out first. If you are starting out you might not have enough. "Growth is a business expense. It is tax-deductible. The salaries of new-hires are paid for with before-tax income." Oh, it sounds so easy. Sounds like a business school book(I am a university -UNC- business school graduate). Bullshit. Rarely is there a smooth flow like you would see described in a book. And then you go have your taxes done...
Oh, Bangin, your an dipshit as well.
people like them are exactly the target audience of the article.
Your little rant sounds like a lot of esoteric bullshit.
I assume you are addressing me. It's a simple question (or three): are business expenses (including employee and contract worker paychecks) tax deductible or not? Do said business expenses decrease taxable income or increase it? When taxable income is decreased, do taxes owed go up or down?
While growth may be tax deductible, you have to have the $ to pay out first.
Why would you hire an additional worker if you could not project that the additional worker would bring in enough income to more than cover his pay and benefits? If you do project that said worker would bring in more than he costs, and if you can't pay to get him started out of current cash flow, working-capital loans are available. But you will have to prove that adding the employee will actually increase income more than he costs in order to get the working-capital loan. And if you respond banks aren't lending, I will know you don't know much about financing start-ups.
"Why would you hire an additional worker if you could not project that the additional worker would bring in enough income to more than cover his pay and benefits?"
Yeah, you wouldn't. And it's not just "pay and benefits." Which is exactly the point. Over regulation and taxation make the potential profit either non-existant or so small that wading through the bullshit and assuming additional risk to hire employees is the last thing many small business owners want to do, and they damn sure don't want to aquire debt to do it. Financing startups? lol.
You respond to my rant about the textbook world compared to the real world with a textbook answer. Brilliant. I hope the test was multiple choice. "if in doubt, Charlie out" (that means pick "C").
Then you go on to talk about working capital loans? Did you get that from the small business administration? Nothing wrong with leverage when used properly, but if start taking out loans to pay payroll.... Then I can take out a loan to buy materials. Then I can take out a loan to buy furniture, and vehicles, and might as well buy that building I always fantasized about... Just get a Loan! Then business will coming banging at your door!
... as I said in my first post...
Kramer : It's just a write off for them.
Jerry : How is it a write off?
Kramer : They just write it off.
Jerry : Write it off what?
Kramer : Jerry all these big companies they write off everything.
Jerry : You don't even know what a write off is.
Kramer : Do you?
Jerry : No. I don't.
Kramer : But they do and they are the ones writing it off.
Jerry : I wish I just had the last twenty seconds of my life back .
Exactly
You are to be congratulated on your success. Particularly given the obstacles you have to overcome. Yours is a story universally experienced (except for the favored few). You have risen despite the socialist burden. If this burden gets to be too much or the playing field becomes uneven and you can't get ahead, then your only options are to pay your fealty fees, or attack the beast. If you choose the latter there are risks but that is the nature of a fight.
If you take the gang on, drop the bomb on your nemisis by waking your employees up to the Libertarian ideals and the ideals of an America under a small government, constutional republic, rather than the over-bearing, over-reaching, montrosity that it has become. You are in a position of influence. Use it, or stop complaining.
I say "complaining" because you convey that you are disadvantaged by the system and feel cheated that someone else is getting away with a tax advantage. I say that the system needs review, not your competitors, because our republic (our "fair" system) has been taken over by a mob of extortionist thugs. They are the problem, not your competitors. You can cough up your fealty fees and get on the gravy train or take the high road.
Or... why are you at least not an LLC. Sounds like you have a shitty attorney.
GernB, I don't know the details of why you're company is an S corp, but that's dinosaur territory, unless there's something very unique and specific that I am unaware of (which is possible), that you haven't mentioned for whatever reason.
S corp structures virtually became extinct with the advent of the LLC.
Full corporations and S-corps offer a more complete separation of private assets in liability issues, I believe. Liability in an LLC is, like it says, limited, but not as complete as with an S-corp.
S-corp profits flow to owners by either salary or dividends. At $40 million and with the need to reinvest capital for growth, why not switch to a regular Corporation status and start accumulating retained earnings? That money will still be taxed in the 35% range, but you'll get some of that back if you are investing in depreciable assets.
Check out any state programs for equipment investment or tax breaks.
You can play the tax abatement game, too. Even if you don't want to relocate, get the tax break for not moving. This is no less rediculus than mohair subsidies. Those 100 jobs are a bargaining chip, especially at your rate of growth. It's another stupid .gov game, but it's just how things work these days. You are large enough to start playing the big boy corporate welfare games.
That is if Obama doesn't increase the tax rate on dividends. Besides He would get tax twice. First at 25% on the whole amount and then 15% on dividends from what is left (last I checked). He is better off as an S-corp. Also, he can always buy a land or a vacation home. We had a client and the partner had him declare his vacation home as a farm. Just put a little stand for a day or two outside selling some of the orages from the tree in the property and the client got the passive losses (Schedule F) and the expenses.
You are getting taxed at 35% is because that is YOUR tax rate. S-Corps are pass through entities, so the income passes directly to their owners as opposed to a regular corporation that has to deal with double taxation. Usually, the best way to "get rid" of income is through asset purchases or real estate purchases. That is what the big boys do (also transfer pricing). Tax Accelerated depreciation allows you to write expenses fast against profit. Just like the dick from Rich Dad advocates.
So if you think that You are going to make 10 mill in a year, purchase the asset that year. The government has a special provision (section 179) that allows to take the expense outright in the year you place the asset in service even if it is December. I think is about 140k per asset. Not sure check the link for the calculator or google it. Don't wait until AFTER the end of the year to see how much you have left in your pocket to start investing.
http://www.crestcapital.com/tax_deduction_calculator
You need a new accountant.
A shortage of cash is one of the biggest impediments to growth for smaller businesses. If you grow too fast, the tax liability kills you and leaves insufficient operating income to pay for the growth (equipment, recievables, inventory, etc.). One of the best things that could be done for small business is to structure some type of tax deferment for companies that invest their profits back into the company.
If you grow too fast, the tax liability kills you and leaves insufficient operating income to pay for the growth ...
Q: How can you grow your business without investing in labor and the means of production? A: You can't. Growth implies spending money on tax-deductible business expenses. That reduces taxable income. That reduces taxes. There is no killer tax liability attached to fast growth. You pay for the growth out of increased operating income - before you calculate what taxes you owe. At least the smart ones do.
Dude, I wanna live in your world. It sounds perfect.
never mind...
This only works if the investment is done in the same year as the earnings. As a single-member passthrough LLC, I have to close my books at the end of the year and pay taxes on any profits. There's no way to leave money in the company to pay for planned investments in the coming year. In a new tax year I can use the money I earned as profit (and paid taxes on) to make investments and then write that off, but that implies I have the cashflow in the new tax year to take the writeoff against. I can carry unused writeoffs over for a few more years, but basically the idea is that the business has to go into the debt hole and then hope there's enough cash to keep operating in order to take advantage of the long-term offsets. This essentially is why *growth* is the imperative in our system. The capitalist system, both on the commercial and the consumer sides, is structured for debt and growth.
Amen. Obummer Care is a Sword of Damocles hanging over all small business and every hiring decision.
Unless the Supremes kill it, it's curtains for employment, starting soon.
You got that right. It's the whole point. Hijack the economy and control the masses.
... it's curtains for employment, starting soon.
Why? Obamacare won't affect employment. Employers under a certain size aren't covered by the rules. And those companies that are covered by the rules will simply stop offering health insurance to everybody. That will allow (force?) the employees to buy health insurance directly from the government's offering. Obamacare gets rid of the health insurance expense for corporations. They think that is a good thing.
You have it precisely wrong. Obamacare is simply the most recent blade in a forest of Swords of Damocles that hang above the heads of every man wishing to provide for his family, friends and neighbors.
There are tens of thousands of pages added to the federal register each year. Add state, county, and city laws, and it is actually, literally impossible to know what the law IS, let alone how to properly comply with it.
We'd have a better chance if we were counting on the singing group "The Supremes" to overturn this unconstitutional piece of crap!
They could team up with Ron Paul and confront all the unconstitutional crap by singing "Stop in the Name of Love." That's love as in "r3volution."
Also so easy for the fat banksters and their pals in crime with a lot of money saying that inflation isn't a problem when they don't have to use much of their fat salaries to pay for essentials that are soaring!
The American people were once a very self-supporting people. Built around local communities and Fraternal orders.
The book 'Freedom from Fear' discusses how the government has in fact made it increasingly illegal or impossible to form Fraternal societies and other self-help organizations. Those who want control do not like competition. Though now it seems they want both control and your money. I guess one follows from the other.
The point of no return was passed long ago. All we do now is sit back and wait for the cancer to completely kill the host, and try to survive in the process.
Experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence#Text
Oh, I forgot the posting requirements. I have started about 10 businesses. The largest raising $150mm and employing about 70 people, Though I have not started one in the last 5 years or so. Well at least not in the US. I did start one abroad. There of the business were very successful. I watched the government go from supporter or small business to destroyer of small business over the decades.
ALCATRAZ reincarnated! Ask any business owner in S.F. I lost my heart in ? Tony Bennett says it best!
Tony Bennett said that drugs had to be leagalized after Whitney Houston died to save stars like her and Amy Whine house. Never mind that much of the damage was caused by legalized drugs and alcohol. My guess is Tony sings to Pelosi in San Fran.
Tony Bennett sucks.
Bill O'Reilly is that you?
O'Reilly: Ron Paul And Tony Bennett Killed Whitney Houston!http://rtr.org/videos/25524/40189/o-reilly-ron-paul-and-tony-benn
@ crockettalmanac I'm just not a fan of Tony Bennett, that's all. I went to see him back in 1983 at the Drury Lane in Chicago and the fucking prick sang about 30 seconds of "I left my heart" in a lousy medley. To me, that is his signature song. I began to doze off during his concert and while asleep I kicked the person next to me before waking up;my wife wasn't too pleased. Honestly, can you name any other great songs that he did? If you like big band music I suggest Frank Sinatra "The Capitol Years" There is no one better than Frank Sinatra, backed up by the greatest big band musicians of all time. I hate artists that get bored with performing their best material and throw it all into a shitty medley, but that's just me.
http://www.amazon.com/Belafonte-Sings-The-Blues/dp/B004AE4KL2/ref=sr_1_4...
I say within 2 yeras, we'll have to ration gasoline.. within 5 years, the motos of America will stop. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WGFSTUS1&f=W
Those numbers are going down because demand has dropped massively, not because refineable petroleum is getting any scarcer.
At this point it seems as though starting a business is about as good as playing Russian Roulette.
The odds are way better in Russian roulette, seriously.
The taxes are bad,the red tape permitting acquisition guantlet even worse.
I had a business .. my own brand of gym energy drinks. I stored the pallets of shrink wrapped drinks in a friend's distribution business...a probably 400,000 sq foot warehouse.
The department of agriculture came to inspect the warehouse as a condition for granting me a business license. The inspector didn't like the seals on the bottom of the dozen roller doors on this huge warehouse. My drinks occupied maybe 0.2% of this warehouse space.
As a condition for granting me a business license, I had to install new seals on all of the doors in the warehouse...to protect against vermin accessing my drinks, manufactured in another FDA inspected facility, where my drinks were merely stored awaiting shipment to my distributors across the country. Not the distribution business owner, who leased his warehouse space, not the owner of the warehouse, me.
Nevermind that my drinks were not manufactured in the warehouse and remained sealed and protected for shipment in this warehouse.
Un. Fucking. Believable.
40,000 new laws went into effect Jan 1, 2012.
THE MAJOR FLAW in our democratic republic is that there is no adequate mechanism for limiting the number of laws the morons can pass and impose on the citizenry. The only check is the bozo chief executive, who is too busy campaigning for his next re-election to veto the new chicken shit laws and regulations.
Repeal the bureacracy, and our nation's entreprenuership and job creation will flourish again.
Every single new law that is passed with the purpose of regulating someone or something outside of criminal law should aurtomatically sunset in 5-10 years unless reauthorized INDIVIDUALLY after review. That would thin them out. It worked perfectly for the AWB too, while we had to put up with 10 years of bullshit restrictions, when it sunsetted, the fact that it was totally useless and pointless was so clear cut it pretty much insured we wouldn't see it again (notwithstanding OBozo winning a second term and stacking the SC with Constitution hating losers...)
Nearly all laws passed are by large businesses trying to limit access of smaller businesses to the market, thus protecting their own markets from these smaller businesses.
I have heard that the creation of one government job eliminates two private sector jobs. If that is true, like The Mogambo says, "we are freaking doomed!"
(WAFD).
The FDA is the worst.
I sat in several "economic development" meetings across California over the last years.
Firstly, none of these pundits or economists with their pies and graphs has EVER met one payroll.
They make $80,000/year going to conferences with other wonky wonks. That is "a job" created.
They do not have a clue.
Secondly, the purchasing managers of these government clap-traps would rather send their money to China than employ local businesses - even after it could be shown that it would save them money.
What is happening is the government wonks are circling the wagons to appeal to big government employee and teacher union's and their impossible to fund benefit programs.
These guys WANT no economy, never mind a transparent or market oriented one.
You nailed it big guy, they've been dismantling the economy over the previous 35 years, otherwise we wouldn't have all these multi-billionaires (and now a few trillionaires) today!
SD's recommended viewing and reading list:
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2012/02/24/the-vancouver-human-rights-lecture---cute-cats-and-the-arab-spring/editor-content.html?cs=utf-8#
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/ecocide-genocide-are-secret-capitalist-efficiency
http://www.epi.org/page/-/old/webfeatures/viewpoints/prospect2007oct-mishel-rothstein-p44-47.pdf
http://www.alternet.org/story/103836/how_the_banksters_made_a_complete_killing_off_the_bailout/
Thank You Kind Sir!
the plutocrats love regulation, taxes, and laws as a barrier to entry....they are doing with the government what john d rockefeller did with his vast wealth and monopoly position....same players are behind crushing small players today...
"Competition is a sin."
--John D. Rockefeller Businessman and forefather of demon progeny
Good, very good TB...LMAO!!!
Is it any wonder why the underground economy thrives?
The undergound economy thrives on the endless spending! Can any " SANE" democrate actually think (HIS/HER), pension will come to " Fruition"?
Hell, I love to cook, but I'm not a culinary artist!
End of small biz. RIP. One fucking big mess moving forward. All hail to Tyrell Corp
I read all these posts and I wonder: why , you people, did not vote Marxist Obama out of office? This is perhaps not sufficient but clearly necessary.
But he looked so dreamy, an African Jack Kennedy with so much promise. Too bad he was more like Teddy Kennedy.
We can count on your vote?
Seriously, defencev, are you truly that ignorant????
I mean, Romney is the private bankster from Hell, while Obama is the prez who appoints all the private banksters!
All the republicons are anti-worker, and Obama/Biden have been anti-worker in their overall performance.
Only a true socialist or radical can save Amerika at this point, and I don't see any applying....
All the socialists went to Greece.
(It is best for your point if you ignore Scandinavia; just trust me)
"pay day is on Friday". Just want to make sure everyone understands that he means that is when he has to "pay" everyone else...even if there is nothing left for himself.
Having been the one signing the checks for over 30 years, I can say without hesitation that it gets harder every year, especially over the past decade or so.
Yes, taxes & cumbersome regs play their part, but the uneven playing field is the killer for us little guys. We don't have 'specialists' on the payroll. No HR or Legal department, no IT guys keeping the systems humming, no in-house finance/accounting team keeping you on track and out of trouble. Regardless what issue arises, the small entrepreneur must find, and pay for, the solution.
Then, if you do manage to find some level of success, good luck maintaining it. As soon as large competitors recognize you and your niche, you will be slammed. All the rules are written by them and for them.
Being independent and running your own show used to be exhilarating & rewarding. Now, it is burdensome and scary.
I started my own business several years ago. Yes there are lots of things you need to do especially if you are going to hire people. If you do not like it then go ahead and just work for soemone else. We all pay taxes. I also see all of the stupid things that people do that violate regulations and end up hurting people. But hey! They are "jobcreators" so we should worship them and let them get away with murder literlly.(When the lawsuits came in after his customers died I am sure Daneskold would blame the lack of government regulation if vermin endied up tainting his energy drinks) Actually most studies show that "entreprenuers" are reall losers who could not make it in the corporate world. Aad also the fantasy that you are all going to be the next Ray Kroc, Warren Buffet or Steve Jobs is also a fantasy. Aside from the fact that they were never "small" businesses (excet maybe Ray Kroc), I doubt that some goverhment inspector would have held them back.
I especially like Eric from Texas who thinks that ObamaCare is getting between him and his hope of turning his friends into serfs. Love it!
Stop blaming the government for all of your problems.
Spoken like a true bureaucrat who never had to meet a payroll. We'll see how you and your family fair when your bosses finally implode this economy for good!! Forgive me Lord, but imagining people like this poor hopeless sap wondering where their next meal is coming from gladens my heart!
George,
Not one lawsuit. One adverse event that was reported to me. I spoke with her, and she said she did not associate my product with her event. Millions of servings/doses sold, not one serious adverse event.
It would be difficult to even imagine how a vermin could taint one of my drinks and have it nevertheless find its way into the hands of a consumer. Once the integrity of the bottle or lid were compromised, the contents would either drain or the lid be so damaged that only a true moron would attempt to consume its contents if any remained.
And no, sir, it would not be in my nature to blame government if somehow my product became adulterated. I would ascertain the cause and correct the problem.
Never did I blame government for any of the challenges I faced except when the direct consequence of governmental sheer stupidity or arbitrary and capricious application of law and regulation.
You, Mr. Costanza, belong to the class of nattering nabobs of negativity.
Now stop annoying me while I contribute to the GDP.
yep, started my self employment in 2000 with $150 and successfully ran it until 2008, now this will be my final year.
By capturing the regulators those business operators so minded can enforce their monopoly through ruinous fees on new starters.
A couple of years back, just as realestate was getting it's good whacking, I was doing the subgrade and utility line testing in a small cluster of light industrial/retail spaces. A building permit for one of these was $140,000 for approximately 5K square feet. On one of the last ones, the owner threw in the towel after getting the base structures in commenting "I can buy one of these other ones for cheaper than it will be to complete this now". Same day he says that, the local building dept. was laying off something like 3/4 of it's inspectors.
While people constructed these units, there was one woman from the building dept. who would stalk the site on concrete pouring days and hand out tickets for $300 fines if let a HANDFUL of concrete fall on the soil...
I am a recently elected Alderman in my community of 90,000+ in Illinois and I can vouch for what the author states in his article. My city charges a sign fee based on the square footage of the sign. I am staggered by the amount of permits and fees levied on the business community. Our children can't find jobs because my progressive state has a very high minimum wage requirement and we are a sanctuary state as well. I have suggested that we should relax the minimum wage law for teenagers aged 14-18 and try to get our federal gov't to grant employers a waiver on collecting social security and medicare taxes from their paychecks, as well. The only ideas I ever hear to solve this massive unemployment issue for our teenagers is more gov't subsidized after school programs to keep our kids off the street. I'm 57 and I started working at the age of 12 because one of my neighbors owned a local restaurant and gave me a chance at a job. Our local fast food restaurants are all staffed with adults who obviously came from some other country and may or maynot be legal. Why don't we value a private sector jobs program for our children instead of begging our gov't to tax us more to provide after school, non-productive recreational activities? The end is near; ignorance is bliss. I am so frustrated I want to scream.
A friend told me that a few decades ago a "revenuer" came calling on a rural rancher and that the revenuer just up and "disappeared". I guess at the time someone was practicing an earlier version of the N.D.A.A.?
yep, annual business license w/ extra fees, business property tax (a bunch of BS), 1040ES every three months, resellers permit to collect taxes and quarterly report, 1099's, audit by the BOE, business insurance etc etc
Hey ClassicalLib17,
I guess in Illinois a "classical liberal" is a person who only wants to modify the minimimum wage laws to benefit certain people, not eliminate them entirely and allow a free market in labor.
A true classical liberal would want to do away with all labor laws and the entire Labor Department. Maybe you should rethink your online name. I suggest ClassicalMod17.
I live in St. Louis, Mo. Our street corners are filled with unemployed men of all ages. It is scary to see it. I am guessing the only thing preventing the food riots and armed mayhem in the streets from beginning is that they all live with and off of their welfare check receiving female family members, girlfriends, etc. I and many others could hire most of these people tomorrow if we were allowed to pay people what they are worth. They are so unskilled that hiring them at the mimimum wage would be a certain losing proposition. That of course would allow me to afford to pay them while I train them to do what I want them to do and in the process teach them how to work and improve themselves. The so called compassionate welfare state supported by wealthy professional liberals who never met a payroll and the ignorant Obama following poor people of course does not allow this.
I of course am also disincetivised by opening my self up to civil or even criminal prosecution if I happend to fail to follow one of the millions of federal, state or local laws pertaining to the empoyment of anyone. I was told by a building inspector this week who had attened a building inspector training course that the feds (namely the EPA) was getting ready to get really agressive about lead paint in buildings built before 1978. Their favorite tactic was to fine any landlord $30,000 per occurence for failing to include the proper paper work warning in their leasing materials. I won't go into the risk of the trial lawyers for making some other sort of mistake. The street courner types all know someone who got rich by suing someone for getting hurt on someones property or being lucky enough to get hurt in a car accident involving a normal insured citizen. It is their lottery and they all dream of their big chance. One thinks twice before hiring the type.
I am a property investor aka as a landlord. And yes, the local bureacrats are working over time to squeeze what they can out of this one of the few sources of money flow left in the city. My property taxes have somehow increased at a time of collapsing real estate prices. Every week a new fee increase or new fees in general are created out of the blue. Another reaction of the broke cities is to increase regulations and oversight (read increased cost and enormous loss of flexibility) on the landlords. It does not help by the way, except of course to provide jobs for the friends and relatives of city politicians as inspectors. They of course run on the platform of how they are forcing those landlords to make the city better. This of course does not work except to make anyone thinking of investing in the city think they are crazy to consider it.
The worst part for me from all of this is not the loss of money, but the sadness of watching it all collapse. The sadness that the opportunities for all these people and our children will be no more - at least until after a possible rebirth after the collapse. Increasinlgy though, I think such a sustainable rebirth is also unlikely with such ignorant voters.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/welcome-zero-hedgetown-usae
I employ three others and myself. I have owned my business for five years but I can't say that I work for myself. All the "work" I do is for my Local, State, and the Federal Government. I spend much time and effort at my business and look forward to taking care of my customers, but I work for the government. Confucius must not have taken bureaucracy and taxes into account when he said you'll never work a day in your life if you love what you do. When I get up each morning the only negative thoughts I have are of bureaucrats and what paperwork/hurdles do I need to negotiate that day. Thankfully I am still profitable so continue to stay open, but more and more I am leaning toward closing down while I am ahead. Sometimes it's not worth the stress and aggravation. I can see Atlas shrugging a bit more each day.
my hat is off to you, I had to get rid of my three employees due to sky-rocketing uEI and payroll taxes.
edit: ha ha, and I got tired of babysitting them!
Yeah.
I have noticed 15 dollar an hour labor is stupid and inefficient.
Now my wife runs the office for "free" and we hire contract mexicans to do domestic and yard work and child care. No taxes, no UI, and the time my wife and i save we can do the secretarial work ourselves.
Our mexicans can work unsupervised but our secretaries never achieved that.
A recent e-mail from my brother...
I am battling the CA Air Resources Board right now on a similar issue...they passed some rule 5 years ago that determined that Refrigerated box truck motors and general diesel truck motors are creating the horrible air quality in CA…so their first step was to require everyone to register their refrigerated vehicles with the state...no charge for that (that's how they built the data base)...then they started adding regulations about retrofitting the refrigeration units with kits to reduce pollution at a cost of $2000 – 2500 per unit. Of course my refer trucks unit is the ONLY model made by Carrier that they did not make a retrofit kit for...so they now want me to replace the entire unit with a newer model at a cost of $6,500 or I have to stop driving my truck or face a minimum $1000 fine for each time it gets stopped. I have spoken with all the supervisors and none of them give a crap, comply or face the fine, if you don’t have the money...he told me to go get a loan from a bank…so nice how small business are treated in CA.
It would be better to go east a little and enjoy the freedoms than otherwise would still be imposed by California.
Before I was retired, loads going to CA were given to someone else. I never had any real trouble in CA thankfully and decided enough was enough.
oh yes, I worked at a power plant in Soledad, CA right out of the US Navy, compliance up the ying yang and the Board shut down the plant due to various "environmental" violations and NIMBY folks. Plant still closed to this day.
Energy
Soledad is home to the Soledad Energy Partnership, operators of a wood-waste burning electric power plant. This 13.5 megawatt facility was restarted in July 2001 after a six year shut-down due to termination of a PG&E purchase agreement. The plant was recommissioned during the California electricity crisis.
As of mid-2006, the plant was again closed.
Controversy surrounding the plant. Several violations at the plant have been issued by the California Integrated Water Quality System Project. The plant was issued violations from 2002 to 2006 for various reporting and pollution allegations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soledad,_California
Well take your choice in Greece all principals of the start up business MUST submit a chest xray and a fecal sample, think that's a joke?
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_21/02/2012_429208
Under a proposed CA law all businesses with more than 5 employees must begin a defined benefit plan for all employees..
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/?ref=drhousingbubble.blogspot.com
I choose poop in a cup for $500 Alex.. We are different from Greece in only the degree of poop we make businesses squeeze out..
Small business is competition for union jobs in big companies.
Small business must be crushed to create more big union jobs in big companies to finance big campaigns for big politicians.
actually no. regulation in the usa has more to do with creating barriers to entry for any possible competitor. unions merely force corporations to share the wealth with labor. that is the real reason they must be crushed. if you make a wage for a living, even while wearing business attire to work, and don't support unions, you are plainly stupid.
Barriers to entry AND to generate revenue to support the massive bureacracies. I hear ya, I feel most times that I work for everyone but me!
Unions no longer protect workers, just the organized criminals who run them.
I would never open another small business now. Massive government spending and promises today mean future desperation for government funding tomorrow with massive future tax increases by any means possible. Socialism-Marxism never works and this is another reason why. Businesses and individuals hunker down and go Galt.
Cass Sunstein, Obama's regulatory Czar, even gives hidden taxes and fees the phrase, "Deceit before receipt." He brags it is the best method of implementing new funding streams. It simply means Govco. should collect axes before the people have a chance to actually touch their own money. Debasement of the currency is the Mother of all hidden taxes. I understand the Brits are using his concept with some salaries, whereby paychecks are sent by your employer to the government first, who take out your taxes, and then they pass along to you what they think you should get.
Despite the underpinnings of complete and thorough insanity as it relates to tyrannical business regulatory policy, fees and tax restraints, as our leech infested local, state and federal governments continue to enforce...I believe that there will, indeed, be a time when the last straw will break the proverbial camels back. I'm curious as to what that will be?
I am reminded of "Mohamed Bouazizi"...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
Mohamed Bouazizi (29 March 1984 – 4 January 2011; Arabic: ???? ?????????) was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides. His act became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring, inciting demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. The public's anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death, leading then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power.
What will be the last straw?
You caught my interest. When I finish the " HYPERLINKS" , I'll get back to YA! +1
i am fortunate. i had always been self employed only finishing college because i thought i might need a job after a divorce ruined my messenger business(on purpose so i wouldn't have to pay the swamp devil) and my finances. fortunately, after reminding myself why i didn't want to work for someone else(economics degree, corporate life breeds losers) i starting trading 15 years ago and dabbling in real estate(flipping). i say fortunate because i found trading as a means to support a start up in need of cash flow. trading has turned out to be a hassle free way to make money compared to having employees and all the other crap responsibilities entailed with business ownership. i have realized the most efficient money making venture is one that makes the most money with the least effort not beating yourself silly to make an unknown income determined largely by unknown circumstances out of one's control. regulation and taxes makes the razor's edge sharper. i find it incredibly ironic that my trading adds millions to gdp even though the actual benefit accrues to one person's(and family) modest upper middle class living when a mere half million dollar gross in one of my businesses supported 6 people and a very good living for myself.
Just how dumb do you think ZH readers are? What a bullshit story.
Hey itstippy,
I believe him. Trading is recession proof. Up or down, profit potential does not change and there is little overhead. Did you not see the original poster's request where he said:
"Before you jump in to "correct" this view of small enterprise in America, first list how many enterprises you have started, owned or run, and how many people were/are on your payroll."
...and yes, I have run business for the last 30 years. See another my comments here for details.
Being a small business owner in the construction industry where I compete with builders like Hovnanian and Ryan, I could tell you many "horror" stories. Instead, I will give you this: A little bit of "hope"?
A community bank, organized and operated by local small business owners.
http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20120225/NEWS01/302250009/Capital...
Board of Directors:
http://www.capitalbanknj.com/about/directors.html
Despite all the right-wing pissing and moaning on this topic polls consistenly show that lack of demand is by far the biggest driver of small-business hiring decisions. But never let facts get in the way of fundamentalism!
I believe it's both: supply side and demand side are both feeling pain. In a biflationary economy that's what happens as both margins get squeezed and cost of living squeezes disposable incomes And it feeds on itself
Polls? Are those the polls conducted by the purple unicorns that fart rainbows?
I have plenty of work, right now. Enough where I could hire a couple guys full time. But I won't. Want to guess why? RTFA.
Same here. I could hire at least one more person for my core business. I have a new product line I would like to start manufacturing, but the costs of starting up and then hiring people are overbearing. In fact, I have been slowly dialing down my business in all three sectors of my business. In this economic and political climate, combined with the regulatory morass, I think you would have to be insane to start or expand a business right now. I am at the age where I could just liquidate and retire. That option becomes more and more desirable every day. I feel so sorry for young people today.
What the socialist up there ranting doesnt realize is we could hire more people at any given level of demand if we had a more efficient and less costly regulatory climate.
Again, all business decisions including hiring are at the margin.
rational,
Interesting name "rational". Per your comment, uh, err, are you on DMT cause if there is one thing interfering with demand it's the government hand pressing down forcing anyone, even those with only a desire to be free to make a living, pay to support their largess. The insanity is so bad that they demand a fee for the air we exhale, predicated on witch doctor science and whose very premise on which their claims of, CO2 is a pollutant and changes atmospheric temperature, are based on fraud. They need an endless revenue stream via the mechanism of cap and trade. Do you have any idea how insane that is Mr. rational?
Like I said there will come a time when their looting schemes will reach a breaking point.