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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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I have read all the comments up to this moment. So many tales of woe trying to make it with a small business now! I describe my (pitiful compared to MANY of you!) attempts, and yes, I failed because it was mostly my being a bad businessman.
The only business that worked out for me was the one we made in PERU!
But, many of you above had REAL businesses! Not just the lone-eagle type I tried... Employees and payrolls... And in an environment MUCH WORSE re regulations, fees, mandates and taxes.
NO WAY I would start a new business here. You have to be MUCH TOUGHER than I am.
A calf muscle of a dead/ FRESHIE! Hell ya I'll eat that for 30 clicks to the " TEAM"!
You're in danger. Do as they say.
I was one of three who started up a media firm in Soviet America ... That would be NYC ... In the 1990's while I worked my way through B-school. The 20 employee business was a far better education than any B-school could have been. I left to go into banking and the other two ran a money-making machine into the ground, selling it for pennies to a larger media co. just before the dot com world took off.
I don't miss skipping paychecks to keep other people happy, and I don't miss worrying about how I was going to provide the healthcare coverage we voluntarily provided at great cost and to great complaints at how it was not good enough. I don't miss generating hundreds of 1099's for freelancers paid amounts over $600. I don't miss filing tax returns at four different levels in three different states. I don't miss being told I need to hang four hundred HR-related posters in two languages to let people know their government-given rights. I do miss coming to work at 10 a.m. though.
That was 20 years ago, and it was really hard then ... I hear regulation has gotten worse since.
I always joked that governments hated small business because it was harder to collect payroll and other taxes from them and to force them to comply with a host of other mandates. But like they say, most humor is grounded in the truth.
Big business is good, small business must be destroyed, and therefore employment continues to decline.
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It's easy for CNBC to hire journalists like LIESman and the girl with big tits(Carberro or something like that) and call them experts on the economy. This stuffs abounds in the world today. Weasel like pundits who've never accomplished a thing that didn't involve jizz running down their cheeks spouting off on how to resolve everything. Fucking sickening bullshit media/propaganda departments
CNBC runs a very successful business. Their product is advertising time. They need content that will attract lots of viewers so they can get a good price for their advertising time. They hire loudmouths and chicks with big hooters to attract viewers. It works well.
Don't watch CNBC expecting intelligent insight on economics. Watch CNBC to stay in touch with what the mainstream fools are being exposed to, or to be entertained by loudmouths, or to leer at the big hooters, or all three.
True dat....you only watch CNB-garbage to make trades based on what these fools say, because you know that everyone else is watching it too, probably for the same reason. And it moves markets. I don't know anyone that gives cred to the media, esp. financial. It should be classified as a comedy channel instead of news. CNBC is just a way to make a trade, nothing more or less. Therein lies its value. Big titties are a bonus, though....
all good things must come to an end......stay under the radar as a lone wolf, is now a must
Thats what i do. Just biding my time and saving up money in ways it cant be attached by creditors. I dropped my last secretary a coyple of years ago. Just me and my wife now. I will go galt and live fairly comfortably, but join the 49.5 percent who pay no income taxes, soon. The government has yet to figure out how to tax my nonproductivity, but i am sure they will borrow a few ideas from the dying days of the roman empire, i.e. tax people based on their estimated potential profits if they had worked. Lol.
right behind ya buddy. That is the conclusion I reached awhile ago. I will soon become a member of the non-taxpaying population.
Wish I could do that. I'm doing all I can by not taking on any additional debt and buying metals with every last fiat of savings I have.
Fuck em.
Embrace it! I did it in October. Sold my 5 year old business and opened an account with Tulving the very next day. Happy days are here again.
I can relate with most of the posts here about the reality gap between employees and owners. I didn't start my business only to sell it but an unsolicited offer came along and I recognized my time to make a graceful exit. This was 1 of 4 businesses I have started in my life and the only one I walked away from without a scratch. I don't know if it was luck, timing or a culmination of hard-earned lessons but I'm out and ain't going back. Now I chillax in my snuggie and fly my new remote controlled helicopter around the house. Pathetic. I used to be a man.
Lemme guess TREX 450?
Atlas has shrugged, boys! I fought hard for a long time, working hard toward the Dream. No more. I buy everything I can used, often through barter to stay outta the system. Promotion? Don't want it, considering how much Uncle takes out at the higher range brackets and the hit in personal time. Yep, I'm just a shruggin MF now.
If you plan on starting a small business, there are two things you will need. No, not working capital and somebody else's money, although that would be helpful. What you need to start and operate a small business successfully is a good attorney, and a good accountant, and both will cost you.
Hi. I can add $0.02. I am the owner of a corporation, it's been in business for nearly 15 years. I started the business from zero and I've probably generated $1M in taxes over those 15 years, maybe more. My corporation provides an income and jobs for 5 people directly, and creates business for many more.
Payroll taxes are a disincentive to hire workers, that much is true for sure.
I've had infrequent run-ins with govt employees. The attitude I get is apologetic, maybe that's because I am good at dealing with them, but in general the govt people (with a few exceptions) act like they are sorry to be such a burden. I had a type of inspection not long ago and an older gentleman showed up and he basically said in so many words he didn't want to be a problem for me and my company. It should be noted that I follow all rules, keep perfect records, and run a tight ship. I think the govt people themselves know how wasteful and unimportant their agencies are. I once worked for the fed govt myself, and I witnessed every kind of rotten waste every day.
I am in a line of business that involves international trade, so I can compare US regulations with other countries. Europe is worse than USA but similar, and Australia is the worst of all. Places like Mexico, you have to pay bribes and it's just a sick mess to run a business. I know that much for sure. It's a little comfort for us Ameiricans.
After we were attacked on 9/11 (and no I don't believe the boxcutter story, so whatever happened on 9/11) a lot of new regulations were planned for "safety". Most of those went into effect by the end of 2003 and they keep growing in scope & level of waste. It became more difficult to get into the business I am in at that point. Americans seem to accept the expense and needless loss of basic freedoms--I think someday even if there were "terrorist" inspections on every freeway & random body scans, those would be embraced by the average person. It's very discouraging. This does play a role in every business especially small businesses, because there is a big new layer of enforcement and policing.
I can say based on my experience that today, regulatory burdens are very favorable for large corporations because the little guys won't be able to get started, or they won't want to overcome the obstacles even if they have the money to do it. Therefore I agree with this article in principle but I think over regulation is a global issue. When put into that context it is still easier to operate here than in other developed countries.
imagine people still thinking to start a franchise.......who are these people ?.....royalties....LOL
Yeah I did my deal- manufacturing co. running 20 to 30 employees for 20 years. Umpteen hours a week made some good profits, Looking back....,osha, immigration requirements, fire marshalls, tax time, sales tax audits, etc etc etc...- Along the way bought a pile of rental properties. Dumped the whole mess in 2005 (whew) Now I am just a landlord advising my lower income scale tenants on how to get assistance from the government to pay me rent. I will not open as much as a lemonade stand until the "Reset" occurs. There must be thousand of guys like me out there- they (state and federal) have knocked the wind out of my entrepreneurial sails. Funny thing, I fish and snowboard when I want, hang out with the wife and could not be happier. F-em all. Oh and I finally voted my conscience and pulled it for Ron Paul. That "wasted" vote made me feel better than all the rest combined.
Atlas Shrugged being realized by tens of thousands one at a time. Amazing how Ayn Rand predicted our future over 50 years ago.
The other issue is the corrosive effects of exvessive regulation on business culture. Those of us who intend to survive in a small business get used to breaking the law and using fraudulent means to "comply."
We have an explicit strategy to never have more than 49 employees, because all kinds of onerous regulations kick in at 50 employees. Would much rather stay off the radar screen and focus on running the business.
I hear you. I am totally amazed that we don't have more a black market. Honestly, I prey for it. Maybe it is because they have scared all those people into becoming 1099 sending machines.
Frankenbama! Remember the torch carrying Heathens? All we need now is an EXPLODING Pinto!
Carter sarc/
As far as my comment earlier i forgot to put down I am self employed in rhe jealthcare industry with adjusted gross after schedule C deductions around 200,000. I do understand now that if you engage in small business you will have to get used to breaking the law on a daily basis to survive.
Those of u in small biz who think you arent breaking any laws
Those of you running businesses where you think you arent breaking any laws are just ignorant.....of the law.
I am used to being a lawbreaker now. Strangely that attitude shift has simplified many other areas of my life.
I dont automatically respect any law now. Running a business was a real eye opener. I make decisions based on risk-benefit analysis. It has made my life easier. But once you have to break a few ridiculous laws to survive, it becomes easier and easier to do so.
If you are going to do that, set up an S-corp.
Here in my community in Southern California the city council saw fit to pass a law banning businesses from hosing down their sidewalks. Why? To prevent the runoff from carrying dirt into the ocean via the storm drains. Never mind that the next rain would do that anyway or never mind that the rain had been washing dirt into the ocean for the previous three billion years or so. It was a nice gesture to demonstrate how green the city was. For our business we now must call in a power washing company every month at a cost of $250/month. They drive almost forty miles to reach our site, put water absorbers all around, install barricades, perform the power washing, vacuum the sidewalks, pullin the absorbers, and remove the barricades. Never mind the huge ecological catastrophe caused by putting thousands of trucks on the road every month. As you might guess the whole town is looking shabbier because no-one wants to pay for this. When it rains a real mess goes into the ocean. But we're green!
lol...that's almost as good as the "conundrum" of low flush toilets installed in Frisco up the road from you.
Yep, not enough water to get the, ummm, goods, from point A to point B.
"Most San Franciscans have learned to live with foul sewer smells that come and go along the city's waterfront, Mission Bay and some other neighborhoods. But some residents are finding a growing effort by the city to combat the odors too objectionable to ignore.
The controversy started at a routine meeting in mid-February of a committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where a city sewer manager blamed the smell in part on low-water-use toilets that deprive the sewage system of the flow needed to whisk away waste matter. Other conservation efforts, a slower economy and changes to weather patterns also have reduced water flow into city sewers, city officials say.
Partly as a result, the manager told the supervisors meeting, the city has had to increase its use of chemicals—notably sodium hypochlorite, a concentrated form of bleach—to combat the stink emanating from manhole covers and storm-water drains. In 2010, San Francisco's spending on bleach for odor control more than doubled to $1.2 million from the prior year.
"We're having a difficult time now having enough water to convey the material to the treatment plants," Tommy Moala, assistant general manager for the wastewater enterprise at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, told the meeting. The agency oversees the city's more than 900-mile sewer system.
The comments sparked concern in this green-minded city. Environmentalists worry blaming low-flow toilets might discourage water conservation. Some raised concern about the ecological impact of the use of bleach, because most of the city's treated sewage ends up in San Francisco Bay. Conservative bloggers, meantime, portrayed the situation as olfactory comeuppance for a government pushing the toilets on its citizens.
Damned straight...smells like a bed of roses...ROTFL!!!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/residents-turn-up-noses-at-sewer-stink-cure-2011-03-30
It goes like this, first create a problem, then implement a solution, then over the next fifty years create work-around solutions to a problem that never should have been created in the first place!
It's like a self perpetuating jobs program for statist retards.
.Gov regulates your toilets and now your light bulbs. They upped the ante with ethanol and now are increasing that to a 15% mix which will likely ruin your small engines(weed whackers, lawn mowers, chainsaws) into the ground while decimating the fuel efficiency of your automobile. They flouridated your water for 30 years and only now are repealing it because the US industries don't create enough toxic waste anymore so they have to actually ship it in from China to brain-deaden the masses. .Gov knows nothing except what their lobbyists tell them and how to get hookers for free. Regulate it and then THROW MORE MONEY AT IT! Yeah, that works...for them.
Gone Galt, not my Fault...
Yeah, one of those curly light bulbs blowing out is a real show stopper with the mercury in em...by their own regulations...lol.
I think so on Galt, it may be time. We've done all we can do to make the kiddies outside of our direct influence understand what's coming.
On curly, mercury-filled lightbulbs: I feel like I'm reading in a dingy stairwell in a third world country. Hate 'em.
And lower your mileage.
You think the toilet is funny. I am still laughing at how regulators want electric cars to have a device to make noise, so that the blind can hear them coming. Talk about lack of understanding of the technology. They could ask the companies to place a device that send a signal telling anybody with a receiver that a car is coming including distance and speed. They can even get a signal back informing the car that they intend to cross, so the car can warn the driver. I know many car companies are already studying this technology.They don't need politicians to tell them their business.
I was happy thinking that one day I wouldn't have to hear the car passing by in the near highway. Instead, my friendly politician will make sure that I get to sleep to the sound of fake roaring engines from electric cars.
Too funny.
Thanks for bringing up the subject of low water usage toilets. I'd like to introduce all of you to a new measure of toilet efficiency. We are used to the unit: lpf or l/flush or liters per flush. I would like to add to that the additional unit called a "Hedge." One Hedge = # flushes per doo-doo or fpdd. In other words if it takes three flushes to get your job down the drain we'll call that a 3 Hedge job. In my office building we have new water saving 5 Hedge toilets. Five, of course, refers to the number of flushes per average (RMS) doo-doo. At home I have toilets dating back to the fifties. They are 1 Hedge toilets for nearly every size doo-doo. Occasionally while reading ZeroHedge I have had to run to the crapper and have overflowed onto the floor. I do not count those events in the RMS fpdd computations.
So. In conclusion. When someone refers to a Hedge Fund you should ask how many flushes per doo doo. And remember. Thomas crapper wouldbe proud of you.
Then someone came up with the idea to build in an electrical component to help the low flush toilet to be more efficient (a "power flush") thus using electricity. So, great efficiency - right? Geez, leave our toilets alone. The Feds are petty at spewing sh*t than they are at getting rid of it.
John Wayne Airport outlawed washing aircraft on the field (with water) because they were concerned about the soap residue breaking down any oil that could then bypass the storm drain filters.
Goddam it. I really would like to live in San Diego, but they keep on fucking it up.
in Greece we made the mistake to trust our government end we all see where it got us
The solution in a election based Republic or Democracy is anyone receiving an entitlement gives up their right to vote! Problem solved!!!
I agree and that is they way it used to be. Only Property owners could vote and anyone else that wanted to Vote had to pay a Poll Tax. Our Founding Fathers were wise men but their wisdom has been changed like the wind.
Politicians will always find a way to expand their base by expanding the fisc. When they go too far, it is the right of the people, nay the obligation of the people to topple the usurpers and right the ship of state. The state is beset with parasites of every shape and stripe. You are either a parasite or an enabler in the current polity. The statists are in firm control, but the time will come when they run out of funds to placate the masses.
Oh. I might add that a high-tech company that applied for permits to build a good sized production facility that would hire over 450 people gave up after fighting for permits for three years. They went to Arizona. The sticking point was the "storage of 38 gallons of hydrocarbons" on the premises. This was their estimate of solvents, cleaning supplies, and paints. No matter how much explaining they kept getting knocked at public forums by Mothers worried about birth defects in their children. Never mind that the people protesting the permits drove to the meeting in SUVs holding hundreds of gallons of hydrocarbons. Are you happy you live in a eco-friendly place?
A manufacturer I worked for ran into the same problem; every thing that was considered an issue to vent locally inside the facility was to be piped into a 'cleaning' facility ducting system where scrubbers were used but every time they added another so-called 'waste product' into the stream, they were charged $10's of 1000's of dollars for the studies, permitting, etc. One day a new workstation that was using a chemical that changed it's 'brand name' was to result in new studies/fees all over again. After working in the area a few weeks, maintenance pulled the ceiling tiles for some reason and I noted the 'new' chemical vent went directly into the cold air return for the air conditioning. Rather than deal with the county/state, they just piped the crap back into the air in the building without any cleaning. I left the department a month later and never worked in one of their production departments again. The Supervisor I told of the issue never addressed it...
Death to Wall MarT! The back filling has begun! " South Park" style! The heart is in the electronics section! You bastards had better NOT kill Kenny!
Update: Isn't Maria Barfaromo Married to that Dollar store clown?
I own a few Rental Properties but the Government seems to be trying to put all individual Landlords out of Business. There was a time when life was simple but today it is a nightmare. Including the calaber of Tenants.
The Government tries to protect the Tenant from everything possible. Things that they do not require you to do in your own Home.
First they started the Lead Paint Registration and Lead Testing. Registration is a yearly fee. Then you have to have the property tested for Lead every time a Tenant moves in. You do not even want to know what it costs to remove Lead from an affected property. Once you get past that point. The testing is about $225. per unit. This is not required of Owner Occupied Homes.
Second they require you provide Smoke Detectors. This is not a bad idea but then they required you to Hard Wire them with battery back up and the Basement needs to be inter connected with the first floor. With the cost of an Electrician and trying to interconnect smoke detectors in a 50 year old house thru plaster walls is expensive. I think I paid about $150. for each Wired Smoke Detector.
Third you then have to install Carbon Monoxide Detectors in the House and have the Tenants sign a statement that they received them and they will maintain the batteries. About $50. each.
Forth they require a Home Inspection on the Unit every 3 years to make sure it is suitable. This runs $200. to $250. This is to assure they have hot and cold running water in the bathroom and kitchen. There are no leaks under the sinks. Really, how many Landlords have or want a leak under the sink. They also want to know if the Refrigerator is clean. I mean really, how is a Landlord expected to require the Tenants keep their Refrigerator clean? You know they get it clean but what they do after that well how is the Landlord responsible. Lots of other crazy stuff.
Fifth they require you to License your property with the County every 3 years at a cost of $50. per unit. This is so that they can cancel your license if you do not follow their rules. You have to submit the license, the Home Inspection, the Lead Paint Test, the Tenants signature on their Carbon Monoxide Detector receipt and of course the Money.
Then you have the County or City which raises your Taxes to the sky, because you are not covered on the Homestead Credit. You are constantly trying to Appeal your Taxes to keep the cost down as much as possible. I had the City raise my Taxes by 150% over a 3 year period during the Housing Boom.
And not to mention what I call the Trash Patrol. Every time the Tenants lose or do not put a lid on the Trash Can they fine you $100. per day. Yes, you can go to the Kangaroo Court and protest as you are not there 24 hours a day to make sure your Tenants put the lid on the can but it always ends the same. They reduce the fine to $50., $75. but you are guilty. Problem is that they compound it as every new violation increase the fine if you had a previous fine. This is of course not limited to Trash Cans. If you have a flaking paint or a lose railing, or the Tenant leaves trash in the yard, or a damaged fence post, etc. you also get a violation notice with of course you guessed it a fine.
All of this with dealing with vacancy, repairs, replacement of carpet, roofs, furnaces, painting, Tenant damage, releasing costs and showings. The County or City seems to make at least 50% of your gross profit in licensing fees, other fees and Taxes. That is before you have to Pay Your Mortgage.
What I never understood is after all of the County requirements and costs that they then have the nerve to come out and say that Rental Costs are too high. That there is no affordable housing in the County or City. I mean really. Let them walk a mile in my shoes. They get the majority of my profit without the hassles of being a Landlord.
Well that's what happens when you have blacks, illegals, and druggies as renters.
All sorts of government bureaucracy and regulations designed to protect these people from their own destructiveness.
Now mind you I'm currently a renter, because home prices have been inflated beyond all recognition by the banksters, and still haven't come down to sustainable levels. But I take care of the place, it doesn't take genius.
By the way, rental costs are too high. Practically everything out there is too high, except for gold of course.
Wate3rfall Sparkles +1000, landlords are evil, sarc.. I know the cities are after me too every time you make a move. Most of my tenants are long term because they like the property and the mgmt.. That said people are people, dolph here may be perfect but not everyone else is. Overreaching Government is evil progressivism disguised as a caring father.. Lets hope he chokes on a chicken bone..
Dolph forgets that the cost of entry is pretty high. You need a minimum of 20% down and about 8% of the price in closing costs. You also have to pay a higher interest rate because it is a rental property.
You also have to pay the Mortgage even when it is Vacant or undergoing repair from the Tenants damage. And when vacant you have to put more Money out to repair the damage, carpet, etc.
The Property Taxes for Landlords keep the Rents high just in themselves. I have a property where the Property Taxes were $3,300. a year and the City raised them to $8,700. over a three year period during the Real Estate Bubble. That is $475. more per month. Even though I have appealed the Taxes and won they still are $5,200. per year now. And after getting a 3 year break at $5,200. they now want to raise them again. I am in the situation were they are Taxing me out of my Property.
You cannot increase rents enough in a 3 year period to compensate for the higher Property Taxes.
What is unfair is that I do not qualify for the Homestead Credit which caps the increase in Property Taxes for Owner Occupied homes at 4% a year. So, the house that is next to mine is still paying around $2,300. a year in Property Taxes . This is actually a violation of the Constitution because it is an unequal apportionment of Taxes.
Have your property reassessed to lower the property tax.
I do that every time it is reassessed. That is how I got the Property Taxes down from $8,700. to $5,200. Yet, not back to the $3,300. 4 years earlier.
Now they want to raise it again after 3 years at $5,200. Yes, I have already filled my Appeal.
Every time I Appeal I never get a lower asssessment on the 1st hearing with the Assessor. I then have to go to the next step which is in front of 3 people on the Assessment Board. There I sometimes get some reduction. I have not yet gone to the Tax Court. But, as you can see it takes quite a bit of effort just to Appeal your Assessment. Not only in the time to go to the Hearings but in the necessary research to try to prove your case.
The biggest problem is that they take the highest selling propertys to establish your value. They do not take into consideration that the property that are being sold have spent a lot of money in improvements and fix up costs to Market them.
And what really gets to me is that they WILL NOT use Foreclosures or Auctioned Propertys as Comperables. They say they are not arms length transactions. Even though a Bank will Sell to an unrelated individual. That is a real kicker.
Property taxes are the embodiment of evil. They essentially eliminate the concept to "private property" and ownership. Everyone just rents from the state.
Dolph,
I am very careful as to who I rent to, and no matter the so called "callaber of Tenant" you get bad apples. I had a Tenant that owned a Stock Brokerage Business. He caused $35,000. in damage with his Dogs. I had an Attorney who declared Bankruptcy and lived in the property free for 5 months. I had a Tenant that put drain cleaner in an upstairs drain and the kitchen drain regurgitated all of the crud and grime in the pipes out of the kitchen sink and all over the kitchen and walls. He did not clean it up for 3 years. He used to fry sausages on top of the stove and the splatter was not cleaned up for over 3 years. The stove was so bad it had to be replaced, there was no hope of cleaning it. Plus, he tracked all of that grease on the carpet thruout the house. Did I mention he was an Engineer.
Now being super selective as no one with pets and perfect credit means that the property stays vacant longer which is a cost as well.
Let this be a lesson to wanna be Donald Trumps everywhere.....you got to be very good and very lucky to make money renting your place, especially if you put a dollar cost on the stress of being a landlord. This is usally not part of the equation......
"There was a time when life was simple but today it is a nightmare. Including the caliber of Tenants."
I can relate WaterfallSparkles...Here take a peek at this "Make Mine Freedom. Cartoon 1948". The consequences of "Statism" is portrayed in it's simplest form....Tragically it parallels the Obama Administration to the tee!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyPZtFJ1KcWow. We have become what they warned about in that Cartoon.
In the old days when government types made enough to have a nice little house, a little boat, and maybe a condo at the beach, they looked at people like you who owned rental properties as having enough to fend for yourself, so they didn't think twice about imposing the burden on you. Now that we pay our government types enough that they themselves can become landlords, maybe things will get better ... assuming the rest of us still have enough left to worry about.
Whenever I think of government bureaucrats in this day and age, to include city, county, state, and federal, this image comes to mind....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADRv6AsznH4
True story. I called the Planning Department to get the info on a property at 720 North Clueless Street... The planner asked" Is that north of 7th?" I almost shit myself... that is what you are dealing with.
Let me tell you the problem. the govt types like my BIL are slugs - they have NO EFFING CLUE what its takes to stay in biz for 40 years - all the ups and downs, biz and economic cycles, staying current, competing, etc. I offered a job to my nephew; no vcacation pay, no sick pay, continuous deadlines forever, low starting pay and you screw-up and you're fired... and when you go out on your own, you will be unemployed every day until you generate some orders/business and you will be competing with guys like me that will eat your lunch and shit in the bag. He passed on the job offer as I suspected he would. He is trying to get hired as a cop and and working now as a mall cop b/c too many applciants for too few jobs. The real problems is that if these guys had to operate the way I do, they would shit themselves and move hom with mommy - and when the speculators and biz owners start saying "screw this"; whose teat will the govt workers suck off?
Anyone! who would sign a lease and take on expenses before having ALL! other Ducks Lined Up! is STUPID!!
Period!
and This Dumb Bitch! did everything Backwards? and it is someone elses fault?
Look! I am all for small business but this bullshit aint that!
fore realz thou!
Try doing business with The Irvine Company. It's their way or the highway.
She did do it backwards, but a map showing all businesses in the City? The laws are being written more and more vaguely which allows the kangaroo courts more power to squeeze.
One other thing since i got up at 4:30 am today and I'm just knocking off now... I can compete with big biz in my profession, but it is getting harder. It would be very, very difficult to open a business in my profession right now... I have been at it since 1987... other than the fact I would have gone stir crazy, I would have been better working within the govt and retiring after 30 years... you add the 90% retirement plus bennies on those $80k to $100k salaries and its been pretty juicy for the gov't slugs.
The govt tyoes may act apologetic - bu tthe ydon;t quit and they know tha tthe bullshit they enforce is job security. The CHP here isn Socal are now tax collectors with radar guns abd revolvers. Instead f enforcing the law, they are now ticketing to support their existence. Anyone here in Socal has seen the pick-up in traffic tix on the freeways here. Its sick.
"I would have been better working within the govt and retiring after 30 years.."
Good lord...My mind cannot even wrap around the idea of working for the gov't. Fighting for my freedom loving countrymen from government tyranny, now that's a hair off a different dog.
1. Increased property taxes
Bullshit! Property Values have to increase for property taxes to increase (per mill).
2. The possibility of providing mandatory health insurance through "Obama care"
Maybe the Boogie Man will make sure ALL people are covered by some kind of insurance? becuase the People Like Myself that already PAY! carry the costs of anyone who walks into an emergency room and doesnt pay. BUT! WAIT!! Let me guess! Hospitals should turn away those people without coverage and fuck them! Jungle Rules! Austerity for the Poor! Right? Fuck You! You! Go! Live! in Africa! with your Like Minded Nigger Friends, Austerity ALL DAY AND ALL NITE!! Enjoy It!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivVKJbtTgs
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.
If people would stop jerking off in the mayonaise at Buger King then maybe the restrictions for what people can produce and feed to each other would be relaxed!
Food Safety? or Corporate Owned Food Producers.. Farming belongs to big business, thusly the Lobby belongs to them as well.. meaning that Government belongs to them.
But food safety is not somehting that should be over looked.. but as long as someone signs a waiver and a document explaining the risks! it should be allowed.. the first thing that half ass made sense so far.
4. In Texas taxes are rising, even in this recession school taxes, property taxes, fees, etc. are all going up.
You just said taxes above.
5. Federal taxes look like they are poised to increase.
Maybe this is going to happen?
What kind of fucking puff propoganda piece of shit wanna be article is this?
This is ZeroHegde!
NOT! Huffington Post!
Tighten Up!
Triple Net is DEAD! And commercial R/E is alive because of EQUITY/COMMITMENT! ex sub-leases on the Guaranteer!
Triple Net lives on..
picking your tenent is key.
I would say to you.. that Government Tenents are Great.. as long as it is a core community need.. State or Federal, either and you should be fine.. it is typical to pay a premium for credit worthy tenents.. but 1031 monies help ease the pain a bit.
building an income base that can not be blown around in the strom or any storm should ALWAYS be someone's first concern..
these guys who want home runs all the time, never close anything that lasts or stands the test of time.
IMHO.
Godd Luck Yen and God Bless You and Yours!
I can attest to this, though my example is not small business related, it might pertain to a small landscaper or tree service.
Last summer I needed to trim back parts of two dieing trees in my yard. On the off chance I would be arrested in the attempt, I called city hall and said I was going to trim some of my trees was that okay. Well, NO says the city clerk on the other end, I must get clearance to trim any tree on my own property from the city employee who did that sort of thing. They gave me his number and I called it. I got voice mail. I asked him to call me back or come over and look at my trees and let me know if I was apporved. Now this is a town of 3,000 people, so he could hardly be too involved to not take my request. Never got a call back, waited a few days and called again. Same voice mail, left the same message, not reponse.
Finally I waited till Sunday when I knew he was out fishing and cut the fuckers down! On monday morning I caught him driving slowly by my house looking at the stumps and sawdust. He never did get back to me.
Now imagine trying to run a small business and needing this jerk to approve every tree trimming or landscape job you got! And nothing can be done without paying fees and getting approvals. I had to tear an old house down to build new. Took months of permits and inspections, plus approved removal of materials they called hazardous in the old house. Cost many hundreds of dollars and months of paperwork to have an old house tore down. I told the state inspector after he finally signed off on it, that next time I would "Burn the Mother Fucker Down First"! He was not amused. Of course not, this guy makes good money and supports his family fucking over people trying to make a better community by removing trash homes and building nice new appropriate housing. Just like Communist China.
You get it.
I had a retired couple of means move in next property over...used to own a trucking oufit somewhere in Indiana. The guy's nice but loud as yankees tend to be.
At any rate, he calls me up and say's, what is the procedure for building an outbuilding, like a barn or shed.
I said, what?, just build it.
He say's "I called up so & so in ___ ________ and they said I have to get a permit." I said are you out of your fucking mind? Don't ever call them down here on us again.
He got the message. He got his mind right.
We're all Greeks now.
Seriously...the whole concept of telling people what they can and cannot do on their own property drives me nuts.
We own 10 acres and couldn't put up another building unless it was smaller than a few hundred square feet and had no plumbing (e.g., a shed/outbuilding). NO exceptions. Only loophole was to build it with a common roof with an enclosed walkway. We just wanted a small little nice place for my mum to live but still have her privacy and I was prohibited.
It's my property! Super rural area (which suffered from lack of growth and population decline...wonder why) WTF? I was so ticked I started joking that I'd apply for permits to grow pot...just to annoy the township.
The town would add 1 more person to a dwindling population if they let U build the house. Does no one in this country understand economics? Letting people be free on their property attracts people to an area. U'd tell all your friends & relatives & they'd immediately be interested in buying some property.
Where I live, the downtown area is becoming vacant & the parking garages aren't making enough money. So the geniuses put in more meters to try to make up the difference because people were parking on the street. Needless to say, this had the opposite effect. Solution? They create new parking laws to create more tickets, up the parking garage fees, & up the meter fees too. Anyone want to take a guess what's happened?
I only go downtown if absolutely necessary. Will probably see timbleweeds blowing through soon.
zerohedge-----you are OBVIOUSLY being targeted by the departmeent of homeland security and the military with fake postings on this site.
I don't expect you to try and find out who is fake and who isn't , but I think it's time to basically shut off the comment system .
i come here all the time and read the posts and I just don't believe they are from real people anymore.
I am a fake poster
I am a real poster
Terrorist
Terrorist
Terrorist
Terrorist
Terrorist
Terrorist
Algorithm Fatal Error 20584
Hahahaha.
Yeah - and I think that poster is the victim of an ID10 error,
(spell it out...old joke but a good one)
Whoops....ID10T error
Posting with a fever today.
But you still subscribe to Penthouse Forum, don't you?
You mean those stories aren't real? If the only hope a guy has left in life is that coming out of DC, then things are worse than we thought.
what is 10,000 esquires at the bottom of the ocean?
Great article, and what the poster says is so true about the government impeding the formation of real and thriving communities. I fully expect that only a complete collapse of 'the system' can sever the bonds between the state and its underlings.
Nice name, too bad they never made sequal.
Off course if things go Greek in America, we all might become pirates.
Very sad. What is even worse is how the media just is not going to call for this regulation and taxation to be reigned in. You can't even open a lemonade stand now without the government.
The Tea party people get ridiculed for various reasons but this is in reality what caused the first Boston Tea party. My feeling is that government employees should all be part time. Number one they would cause far less damage if they were only making laws for half a year. Number two they would have to live under the rules and laws they create at least for half the year. Number three never vote for any incumbant because the people that are creating fiefdoms need to live in the same mess.
It costs roughly $200 to start a merchant business in HK. if you open a restaurant another registration is required. Certain businesses like beauty parlors require a training certificate. Street level businesses are opening and closing constantly.
It is like this throughout most of Asia.
Similarly, when the economies in Central Europe converted, many traders operated out of vans. Quite a few of them wound up building public companies five years later. To help stimulate the economies, the US government funded micro-lending programs through banks.
Too bad we are too stupid to know how to do that on our own turf.
Do a google on what it takes to be a hotdog Vender in Manhattan.
...or for my kids to sell lemonade or snow cones here...despite the heat index in August being over 100 degrees for weeks on end. Not even a consumer-driven business can help these kids.
...and for those in the investment business - don't get me started.
As a compliance "geek" I feel badly for those who are so heavily regulated (especially for the small businesses) to the point of the ridiculous....because of the really bad eggs in the large practices.
/division by zero is simply not allowed...
Thornton Melton "How to Start a Business"
+20 excellent rip. "Back to School" should be required viewing for all self-employed. Rodney, a few cold ones and maybe a skiff or two would help take the edge off every now and then.
Thank you.
Excellent clip.
Reminds me of Pre. Owebama trying to preach to us about how the U.S. should stimulate the economy, jobs, etc. This from a suit who has never started a business in his life and whose background is more than a little sketchy,
That is public education in a microcosm. Dangerfield's character should be teaching the class, but he wouldn't have the appropriate licenses or "degrees". Book knowledge versus real world. The stuffed shirt running the class should be sitting in the seat learning instead of running his mouth.
As a matter of fact, most of the CEOs I've met were the same stuffed shirts. Full of book knowledge & bearer of fancy degrees, but no practical knowledge, usually not even of the business they were running. But they had the appropriate "qualifications". None had ever "worked their way up the ladder" like in old days & none could go downstairs & do the work of the low level people. Shouldn't the CEO be able to do basically everyone's jobs from top to bottom? Shouldn't he be the guy/gal who could step in & fill almost anyone's shoes? Maybe even do some of the I.T.? Run a forklift?
I remember working for 1 unnamed soulless corporation where the secretary was always pointing out the CEOs mistakes - before he made them. She was "unqualified" even though everything she would've done was the opposite of what Mr. $800 shoes was doing. She was the smartest person in the company.
In teaching, it shouldn't be, as someone posted, "If U cannot do, teach". It should be go out & do, then teach.
Copy that.
Seems to me small biz is getting battered with increased regulations, fees, etc. which are initiated by bigger biz trying to eliminate competition or just smaller companies in general.
The recent PCI/DSS regulations aren't talked about but have impacted many businesses. And with the bills swirling around restrictions on the Internet, who knows if online biz will even be possible for smaller companies in the very near future. My feeling in the big guys want there to be many, many fewer choices.
Start a business and suddenly you feel like all eyes are on you like you're a sheep that needs fleecing. Is it not remarkable that every utility company will charge you commercial rates? Every step you take is taxed, your rent is plus triple net. You pay business tax on even your inventory, so yeah, be smart, don't keep much at all. Every license will cost you, not just money, but class time. Every upgrade, every change, every step you take will be hobbled with that very heavy financial ball and chain. And all those will have to renewed annually. Who the heck is going to take the plunge now? There is no demand, I see small businesses closing with a vengeance, but triple net is still the law. There will still be commercial rates, and there will still be licenses, permits and electircal, plumbing and zoning piranhas picking the last bit of flesh off your bones.
There are way too many people unemployed who just might take the leap But the bar is set far too high, they won't risk it, and they shouldn't. No wonder 80% of small businesses fail in the first year. Even good busineeses takes a couple of years to find their footing, but in the mean time...sheesh. Forget about employer subsidized SS and medical insurance, you're on your own buddy, and the insurance companies will be just like the utilities, squeezing you for every dime. And when it all goes kaplooey, no unemployment, no safety net, nothing. You're sunk. You dared to go outside the system, you dared to try, you will be punished...great ain't it?
I gave it 1 star.
You hear people tell the unemployed to stop whining, but I've never heard the unemployed whine more than business people.
I love the comment "the State has taken over the natural function of community". It rings a little like "don't let the gov't take my medicare".
What do you think the state is? It's the community, fool.
It's like the whiners saying we need less gov't. But you don't hear these same business folks saying "oh please get rid of these roads that bring patrons to my business". Or please shut down these schools that provide educated workers for me. Or stop funding these police and firemen that protect my business. Or close these courtrooms that allow me to exist in a lawful market place.
It's so pathetic, stop whining. You want no government? Go live in Somalia. If you think you're so empowered and majestic that you can exist without "the state"....go live in the 3rd world or on an island and frankly STFU.
I find it a joke that you couldn't find a way to live tax-free in a commune! Hell, Mitt Romney found a way to hide FORTY FUCKING TWO MILLION dollars from the gov't. How dumb are you?
Are you on drugs? Seriously.
Most of us can not afford the legal help nor do we have the political conenctions to pull off a stunt like Romney. Most of us are too honest to try.
This sounds suspiciously like a bend over and take it post - or maybe some trolling. The state is not the community. The state is the state. It is a community (mostly of snakes these days) but it is not "the community".
As for roads, schools and everything else - well - we used to do fine without "the state" taking care of these things in the past. Maybe it's time to try it again.
And BTW - just becasue we deplore the corrupt pile of shit that is the modern state does not mean that we embrace the concept of chaos and murder. Grow up and pull your head out of your asshole.
Really? When was the last time a group of citizens went out and plowed a new road? Are we talking within the last 150 years?
To me it's just silly to argue that gov't provides no benefits.
As for "the state" not being the community, then what is it? If you were to organize the community, how would it be any different than a local gov't? Are you an anarchist?
You're just mad that other people don't share your views. That's tough, it's a democracy. If everyone agreed with you, then suddenly you would be in love with "the state".
Here's a suggestion, get into office and get rid of regulations. It's obvious that most people don't care or it would be done already.
As for "businesses create jobs", uh no, they don't. Demand and consumers create jobs. There really isn't ANY difference between businesses and labor. Both are trying to access the market and sell their services. Without people holding cash, neither will work.
To me it sounds like "give me more benefits, I want workers without paying them, I want resources on the cheap, I want to pay no taxes...blah blah". If workers demanded all the goodies that you want, you'd call it socialist. Funny how that works.
We all realize that people that get paid low wages are due to their position in the labor market. Maybe businesses need to realize that their low revenues are due to their position in the market as well. If you can't compete, you can't compete. Someone else will fill the void...JUST LIKE LABOR.
"Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii’s Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park — for free.
Polihale State Park has been closed since severe flooding destroyed an access road to the park and damaged facilities in December.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources had estimated that the damage would cost $4 million to fix, money the agency doesn’t have, according to a news release from department Chairwoman Laura Thielen.
“It would not have been open this summer, and it probably wouldn’t be open next summer,” said Bruce Pleas, a local surfer who helped organize the volunteers. “They said it would probably take two years. And with the way they are cutting funds, we felt like they’d never get the money to fix it.”
And if the repairs weren’t made, some business owners faced the possibility of having to shut down.
Ivan Slack, co-owner of Napali Kayak, said his company relies solely on revenue from kayak tours and needs the state park to be open to operate. The company jumped in and donated resources because it knew that without the repairs, Napali Kayak would be in financial trouble.
“If the park is not open, it would be extreme for us, to say the least,” he said. “Bankruptcy would be imminent. How many years can you be expected to continue operating, owning 15-passenger vans, $2 million in insurance and a staff? For us, it was crucial, and our survival was dependent on it. That park is the key to the sheer survival of the business.”
So Slack, other business owners and residents made the decision not to sit on their hands and wait for state money that many expected would never come. Instead, they pulled together machinery and manpower and hit the ground running March 23. Watch the volunteers repairing the road »
And after only eight days, all of the repairs were done, Pleas said. It was a shockingly quick fix to a problem that may have taken much longer if they waited for state money to funnel in."
Cool story!
I'm surprised the gov didn't step in an fine them for not getting the proper permits, etc.
But seriously - thank you for posting this. I'd give you 100 "up" votes if I could.
The CNN links don't work.
CNN probably doesn't want Americans getting any ideas about doing stuff themselves.
U can fix roads quicker than some overpaid country road workers? That's a terrorist act, making The Almight State look stupid. That gives comfort to our enemies! Off to Guantanamo for all of U!
Dumbest post ever on Zero hedge.
Too many holes and falacious/stupid points to even waste my time on countering them.
I owm a small/medium size business. A 40 hour work week is like time off. 60 hours is closer to the norm. Run for office? Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaaa Snort Wheez Ha Ha Haaaa Haaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Those who can work & produce. Those who can't run for office and steal from those who do. That is the nature of your modern "community". Careful my slimy friend or Atlas is gonna shrug.
Seriously.
Well said. That poster is the type to run for office since he/she is an ardent believer in his/her own bullshit. They "know it all" don't they? I find it interesting that the uneducated and ill-informed feel so confident about giving their advice and opinion so freely.
They are guilty of what Paul Craig Roberts called "the Tyranny of Good Intenions". lol
Seriously? I'm not mad because -as for me, I don't care if you don't agree with my position. I couldn't care any less about an irrational, uneducated side of a debate.
Really? You don't see anyone plowing new roads? Business owners and prospective business owner plow proverbial new "roads" almost daily. What do you do? Do you show up to your 9-5 each day to put forth a minimal amount of effort and expect to be paid every day?
In terms of the other roads you speak of - one cannot change / construct a new road or most other things because it is so f-ing regulated - you can barely sneeze in business without filing an appropriate form or complying with some other piece of regulation. I attest to this as compliance is my business.
Your position is so utterly irrational it is starting to make good comedy. The only part that isn't funny is that you believe it.
No one has here thus far as implied a desire for anarchy. No one here has implied that they aren't obligated to participate in a fair form of government - they have only expressed a desire for a free government which supports business vs. placing obstacles in front of business. It just needs to be fair.
I don't want any benefits of which you speak. I don't want workers without paying for them and I don't want resources cheap as you have so ignorantly charged. Geez, what is up with that?
Your charge: "... don't want to pay no taxes" (Seriously? Geez, readers of your post can scroll back to my issues with public education and if you were educated privately - your parents or guardians should ask for a refund). I think most business owners only seek what is FAIR and to not be penalized for being a business owner - which, if you took the time to really research this topic, you would find is the case.
We would all be interested to hear about your expansive experience as an biz owner. Oh and consumers do not create jobs - They simply create a suitable environment in which businesses can be formed in an effort to meet the neesd of consumers.
Actually, shoving that guy's head up his ass would actually make him SEE shit clearly.
No, it won't Blue. And the history I read says we'll never get an apology afterward either.
It's True Grit time and unfortunately not many have the stones and hence will learn lessons the hard way.
OK, I'll join your team. I'll stop whining about taxation and regulation and simply demand free food, housing and medical care.
That's the ticket. Welfare for the productive. Don't know why I never thought of it. Thanks Crockett!
"What do you think the state is? It's the community, fool."
No, as a matter of fact, it's not.
I can't give a weapon to the guy across the street...in order for him to steal something from his next door neighbor that I covet...in order for him to then give it to me.
That's called being an accomplice to a crime.
Amen.
At least the Unemployed get a check every week while unemployed. Which for now has gone on for 2 years.
The Self Employed or small Business Owner gets 0, Nada, if they have to close their Business. If the Self Employed Sales Person does not sell anything that Month there is no Money to live on and you cannot get unemployment Insurance. There is no safety net for them.
Plus, the Self Employed, Small Business Owner is NOT guaranteed a check every week even while working.
Government worker?
Please, I'm pretty sure no one said anything about really getting rid of government altogether.
I don't presume to speak for others, but I would think the majority would hope for a more reasonable government.
Thank you. Common sense does still exist.
It does...but it isn't that common :)
Can you say TAX REVOLT?
I know you can. Just put your lips together and...
I did & I feel so much better. It haunts my dreams.
But we need those property taxes to pay for public education! And if you talk to many of the products of that educational "system," I'm sure you'll agree those are dollars well spent, a real sound "investment in our future."
Good lord HB, in this day and age, at least here in Kalifornia, investment in public education is an "investment in our future" of mental retardation.
Even our most sophisticated elite universities are pumping out a myriad of mental disorders...Just look at the consequences of the Obama Administration. They're as DUMB as a sack of rocks and I'm willing to bet that most of those who voted for him are of that public school tribe or are feeding off the government entitlement parasitical, leech infested trough!
Well said.
ff parents really dug into what goes on - I think they'd be fairly horrified unless they don't know enough to be appropriately horrified.
The amount and type of info that even (some or many) local school districts will keep from the public (e.g., test results, teacher issues, etc.) would make your hair stand on end.
But...what floored me is the lack of parents who showed up at school board meetings (except during an ocassional controversial matter).
Parents just have to make some time to understand the entity that is taking charge of their children (and their education + socialization) for so many hours a day.
I became a school board trustee because I had 4 students and cared greatly about what was going on with their education (including the behind the scenes issues). A few parents expressed appreciation for my supposedly being the "only voice of reason" on the board -- but I often expressed sadness about the utter lack of concern on the parts of the majority of parents.
I resigned the position as I moved out of state - but in that particular case, the position also gave me insomnia and anxiety.
Parents - if you have kids in public school - you absolutely have to get involved and find out exactly what is going on - dig into the details about the qualifications of teachers (e.g., did you know that sometimes teachers are teaching classes they aren't qualified to teach - and I'd heard of a case where one teacher wasn't even licensed!! - not found out until a new superintendent looked into it), ask to see written plans (instruction) and see if they correlate to state requirements (easy -its almost always on-line via the state dept. of ed), view the results of testing (question all), the quality of subject matter, how the school is spending public funds (go to meetings and ensure the audience gets copies of the bills to be paid), ensure your school board members take charge on these issues (beware of school boards that ass on all bills without at least ocassional questions and they actually read text books before approving their purchase), and issues related to student conduct. Don't let administration or boards brush you off - it is your right to know what how the school is serving your children.
I'll step down from the soapbox now :)
Licensing of teachers is no guarantee of quality. The best teachers I've ever met were not "qualified" according to the government indoctrination propaganda colleges, they actually were former business people, entrepreneurs, & other people that actually had REAL WORLD experience. That licensing scare BS is 1 of the reasons why good teachers are hard to find.
The monopoly on teaching through licensing & unions ensures low quality, not higher. The gate keepers want to throw as many roadblocks in the way to ensure their little fiefdom remains secure. We need a tax revolt whereby we refuse to fund these institutions of idiocy.
If a teacher tries to teach real history that's not slanted to US exceptionalism or Austrian economics, they'll be drummed out of public education so fast their head would spin.
Oh no, don't get me wrong...I agree that licensing only means that someone filled out the paperwork properly.
But, we I know of one teacher that was not licensed because she hadn't even met the educational requirements. The prior admin hired her under the emergency sub rule - with the understanding that she'd complete the studies and get her reqs. Well, there are seniors that graduated that technically did not get their education as required by that State.
My point was that many (not all) schools are so poorly run and parents / community members involvement in some towns is zilch - so they get away with it.
Good sarc.
Seriously - we need to get the feds out of education....and don't get me started on the teacher's unions. Some good is done via them - mostly not and they certainly weren't formed for the benefit of our students.
Former school board trustee...I was so disgusted with the administration of schools as a whole (in networking w/other schools, studying other education issues, etc.). 3 of 4 of mine are now homeschooled and greatly supplemented with a e-school. We have never been happier.
But I digress..sorry.
Everything that government touches is ruined. When big business + government team up, the same results are seen as the monopoly kills the market as it becomes immobile & does not innovate. Usually, it also starts to shit on its customers.
The "War On Drugs/Poverty" all lead to increases in those segments of society. The government wanted more people to own homes, look @ the result. The government wanted more people to go to college, now its unaffordable & degrees becoming worthless.
I sense a pattern here.
It's a fascist state. It's set up so the government and the giant corporations can extract money and labor from the rest of us. Those at the top don't really want us doing small businesses. They want us as wage slaves. This is why it is so hard to do small businesses. I've been doing my own small businesses for about 10 years now, and it's tough. There's no getting rich because my money is sucked away by the government and the power company. It used to be sucked away by the banks too, but at least I have them off my back now.
I would honestly do more if there weren't so much government involved in doing more. I have thought of several ways to improve my business in the last year and ultimately chose not to do either because I was afraid of getting the government onto my site to inspect. It could definitely open a can of worms. I've been burned by them before.
Dolly Madison is not a small company!!!! lol.
The government, if it sees U as prosperous, just sees more money to extract. Government can only be parasitic in nature, especially 1 that ignores the Constitution at every turn.
Good article
Started self employed in January 1984, and I'm still running my small business 28 years later.
Everything you wrote I have to agree with.
I visited New Zealand a while back, and one of the things that struck me was how everywhere yo go there are these little family-owned storefront shops for everything... fresh fish, shoe repair, washing machines, tennis equipment, etc. So I asked around, and looked up a few things about why there are all these small businesses in New Zealand and empty strip malls in the US. The answer is that it's incredibly easy to open a family business in New Zealand, and almost impossible to open a family business in the US. In the US, the burden of taxes and regulations on small operations like that makes business ownership out of reach for all but the very wealthy families that can afford to lay out a couple hundred thousand dollars while they wait for all the government palms to be greased before they can open their doors and make their first sale.
There's one more thing to add: Unemployment Insurance.
All states are different, but most states use an "experience rating" system. If you are an employer that had to lay off workers, when you hire them back, you will be forced to pay a higher premium. Just one more disinsentive to hire.
I have to love how the cause for the failure of small business is "taxation & regulation". Not the monopoly of big business and their grip on the economy... It's always the eeeevil goobmint, never the really asshole bad business.
Fascism kills small businesses & it killed the US economy.
Acht,
You are part right. It is often a combination of the two. Corptocracy is the problem we are facing in our sociaety - a mix of private and political/governmental interests. It is fascism, socialism and corporatism all wrapped up in one ugly but dangerous bundle. The only people that benefit from it are those at the top and those that write the rules.
The rest of us are not powerful or wealthy enough to lobby for favour, exemptions or grants. Some of us (businesses) literally get run out of dodge by one interest or another - forced out by law and regulation either for the sake of creating a vacuum or making room for others with connections.
Remember the speach just this past year Obama gave on ending unnecesary regulation? Remember the we go to get rid of all the red tape that is killing job creation. Remember it was just a speach.
Yeah, I remember that.
That was a few years earlier - now we can look forward to unreasonable arrest and detention + drones soon to be flying overhead. I didn't vote for him - My only hope and change involve a hope that we change leadership ASAP.
I want to wake up - hoping its all a bad "Minority Report"themed dream.
If we get Mitt Romney, we go from a 1/2 white fascist Obomber to a full-blooded white fascist Obomber. Why bother?
They get their money from the same people & practice the same economic mumbo jombo - debt, war, sending jobs overeas. The only one who says anything different is Ron Paul.
I'm sure Big O is really against unnecessary regulation. Problem is that unnecessary is like being a little pregnant, i.e. it's all necessary, otherwise why would it exist. Don't you see?
I tried working for some others, corporations and governments, but those lasted only weeks or months. Basically, I was unable to learn how not to work, but look busy when I was not doing anything; coworkers actually became upset and angry when I worked. This behavior I found to be true in the 80s and then again in the 90s and 2000s.
I started my first business in the early 80s. I started the company because leads were never contacted and went cold with my former employer. So I started my business after finding the sources for financing these deals. After I got the business rolling and making a profit, my former employer hired me to restart their division that was letting the leads go cold. So, after I got their division rolling and built up their databank with resources for funding, they let me go...guess I got smarter, eh?
Then the tax laws changed and that field became less profitable for the investors, so there was less interest/profit. On to a new career/field.
I figured I start another business after working with a couple of small business, who I found out, were cooking the numbers so the deal would go through. Though we all were regulated, required licenses from state and federal with background checks/investigations, the laws were respected by...no one I knew in these companies. So, I started another company in this field.
All was going well...until Free Trade, merging of already very large financal institutions, and of course, the famous scheme of outsourcing started. I had a couple of subcontractors who also were required to spend money to maintain their license (yes, most people sleep during these required updating of knowledge...blah blah blah - waste of time and money). Though I ususally made less than my contractors, we also were socializing and sharing knowledge when we worked together in the office. We all knew we weren't making the money we should because the fees were going down...every few months. The Banksters found loop holes and managed to obtain minor reports to satisfy the regulators compared to the original products that had been required for over 50 years.
So, our original fees went from $275 to $50 which is just one of the factors at the heart of the current Economic Shitter we are living in today.
So, I figured I change fields again, because the last stint or attempt to stay in the field led me to a state government position. Which I found to be just as corrupt with superiors that looked the other way and let gross negligence, lost/misspent money and errors just slide or just ignored.
I then entered another field of the related Bankster Fraud Field. Of course it was difficult to compete with the other firms providing the same services. But...I provided services without fraud while making a fair profit. I was even interviewed by FORBES!!! Whooo hooo! I made my point in a reputable magazine...See mom and dad, I'm not making this up...
So, that was short lived. Because more consolidation was going on and my competitors were making up all types of lies, statements and more, but they had capital!!! Who can compete with others with really deep pockets and advertising budgets? After all, getting and closing the deal was just a 'numbers game' to these well funded thieves!
So, now I utilize my administrative skills and knowledge, curiosity and research skills for my ideas and partial experiments in starting a new business, or rather, means of earning some sort of income. At this point I don't have anything meaningful to earn a moderate income. I looked into solar but one needs state and federal licenses...forget that...not to mention ongoing educational updates!
For the last few years I've been working on getting my house to be self sufficient and reducing my needs of other business (e.g., growing food, chickens, rain water, gray water for flushing, learning about electricity' basically, methods of producing the resources I need).
As for means to produce income, I've explored a lot of ideas and not one idea would lead to anything other than small money, even if I had capital though I may have a source. My thoughts, at this point, is to provide my services without giving them a title or label used by any government agency or enforcement entity. For example, if I were to sell some chicken eggs, I will not label them nor will I qualify them as anything special. They will come in an unmarked box. If my friend wants to buy one of these solar panels I made, I will not mark them as having any number of solar cells which would provide so many watts. All of these sales will be by word of mouth only. I am still working on these "work-arounds".
If they want to protect their buddies and their interests, then their buddies can pay for their wars and their police.
I will not participate in TPTB game.
I am waiting for the Global Collapse.
Their economy in not my economy.
FT!!!!
I just want to thank ZH and everyone who commented on this article. As is often the case at ZH, the comments were more instructive than the original article.
As I have made my way through life mostly self-employed, I can now honestly say that I am not alone in some of the devious things one must contemplate and perform in order to keep the government off one's back and the doors to the business open.
The comments here would be a real eye-opener to just about everyone who has never set out on their own and to the regulators and .gov workers who have contributed to the destruction of the American Dream (self-reliance) over the past 40 years.
I actually hope is that the various governments fail from local to federal level and that all of the people who worked for the beast and are retired or about to, see their pensions rendered to sawdust. when they have to go out and earn their own way, it will be we entrepreneurs who will show them how it's done, and we will prosper.
The system has continued to slant away from the self-employed and the entrepreneur, but I feel that a huge change is needed and, hopefully, judging by some of the comments here, people are "getting it" and that change is coming.
Again, thanks to all.
I couldn't agree more! Nicely said.
I have been self-employed for 16 years. Prior to that I worked for a while for a small biz owner and for 12 year worked for a corporation.
It behooves me as to why our government does not offer incentives to business owners vs. trying to throw obstacles in front of us at every turn.
This country was built upon people who took initiative to form, create and inspire others.
Heh, those incentives go to big corporations 1st = fascism. Also incentives would just be more money taken & redistributed. The US government is broke. It is basically a big corporation that sucks money from the productive & wastes it or blows things up in foreign countries, causing those countries to waste their money fighting us.
The US government is the biggest impediment to freedom in the whole world. It needs to go away or be dismantled & be replaced by a republican government beholden to the Constitution only.
Tax revolts need to happen like in Greece. The US government is akin to Cerberus, the hell dog that guards the gates of hell.
To all the little fascist government DHS, FBI, etc. drones reading this - eventually U will be unemployed because there's no money to pay U dishonest welfare recipients either.
Yep. I had this discussion with one of my customers recently. He ran for a federal seat in government many years ago. He is disgusted with how corrupt and f*&#ed up the system has become. I told him not to worry. It will get worse for a while but as nations of people slowly wake up to the fact that their currencies are worthless and their governments are bankrupt - well - no body works for free.
Even alphabet soup agency trolls need to be paid so they can buy groceries and keep the lights on. If your money isn't worth the paper it isn't printed on who is going to go door to door busting skulls in the name of the state? Like I said - nobody works for free. the system will eventually crush itself. Buy gold, silver, oil and ammo and relax. Time, nature and plain old math will take care of this mess eventually.
Free New Energy,
Looks like you are taking this lying down.
Read and try not to puke........
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/02/bill-to-destroy-california-businesses.html
While the Unions are part of the blame, Mitch lets the politicians off the hook for making the promises (they should go to jail) & also doesn't mention much about Wall Street corruption or CEO pay being totally dislodged from reality.
As Lee Iacoca said, "The buck stops at the CEO's desk". American Airlines fires 30,000 people, but the CEO & top managers stay on. They should be the 1st people fired. CEO pay has not decreased even though we're in a Depression.
Mish blames the victim 1st, a ploy to excuse the 1% aka the elite.
Here are some clues of what will continue to happen in "developed" countries. Note that the main discrepancy is simply what is reported vs. what people are in fact doing in order to stay alive.
http://mises.org/daily/5809/The-Education-of-Robert-Neuwirth
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/mf_neuwirth_qa/all/1
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/28/black_market_global_eco...
There's this new talking point in the left's toolchest these days, reflected by Tim "TurboTax" Geithner's recent comment on how people should pay taxes for the "privilege" of being American. I just LMFAO when he said that, then made a heavy sigh as the depression of it all sank in. We've been working with a company for several years, fighting envirnmentalists and various government agencies in court, just trying to open te doors for production. This particular business would immediately employ about 20 people, and could quickly grow within five years to employ a thousand, not even to mention the effect on trading partners, suppliers, etc. Well, the good news is that we finally won our lawsuits, and may move forward to production, of course, with all the necessary paperwork. While talking about it a few weeks ago, some green nazi punk actually said something to the effect that our business, like all business, is only made possible by the government, "the government provides the infrastructure, builds the roads we ship our stuff on, defends the security, provides utilities, etc.". I was livid - I really imagined myself wrapping my hands around his scrawny pencil-neck until he shut up, passed out, or died. I tell him (calmly) we did all this despite the government, not because of it, and it was the government and his green nazi pals who did everything in their power to keep us from ever opening shop. I let it go after that - anyone who's capable of believing that kind of drivel simply cannot be convinced by reason.
Dude - I think i just felt my blood pressure rise while reading this post.
Your urge to strangle the MF'er who suggested this is quite normal and natural. Next time embrace your inner Hulk and give it a try.
We are ALL John Galt!
My best friend has a successful small business for the past 15 years. He complains constantly that the regulation, paperwork, and taxes are killing him! He works 12-14 hour days, and few people except me see the burden it places on him.
We're killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, and many Americans only want to steal the geese through endless entitlements!
A catastrphe is coming. Calamity is certainty! Plan and prepare acordingly to pick up the pieces after it occurs!
And don't get me started on the so-called county Planning Department - the most inept, misguided, fucked-up assholes in govenment - the West would have *never* been won if these fucks were around.
Incompetence squared. Nay, cubed!
So the so-called 'underground economy' is florishing - things ain't all bad.
Today, I liken starting a small business to buying a deep out-of-the money option. You'll bleed dry and expire worthless (most likely) or get a pop from a fairly unexpected event (buyout from larger co, etc.). It's hard to see the middle road events (grinding out and building organically over time).
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