How has the government interfered with your small business?

[eth2]

There is no question that the climate for business has significantly improved over he past several years, but not for the reasons that have been discussed thus far and, depending on your point of view, perhaps not in the best interests of the 99%:

1. The composition of the Supreme Court has shifted from a liberal activist court to a pro-business, conservative Court. One need only look at the Court's recent decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission for proof. Who would have believed that corporations are "persons" for purposes of free speech (read as funding political corruption and buying politicians). In one of the most disingenuous or naïve lines in any SCOTUS decision the Court held, "We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption." Enter the Koch Brothers who raised more than $400 million in the 2011 - 2012 election cycle to push legislation and buy politicians who would increase their wealth. Does anyone think what is good for the Koch brothers is good for America (minus the 1%)?

2. Labor Unions and the middle class have been decimated - I have spent my entire life involved in labor relations. I have represented employees (as I do now), and represented corporations while they offshored jobs to third-world countries (until I couldn't look in the mirror any longer). Whether you liked labor unions or not, you cannot argue that they helped build a middle class who could afford to buy the things that business (including small businesses) made. With the destruction of he middle class, who is going to buy homes, cars, Klipschorns, etc.? (Ans: the Chinese). We have stalled the inevitable collapse by the housing bubble (loans to those who did not have the income to buy those houses but could speculate as long as the bubble continued to grow), virtually free money now (0% interest to banks to make 3% loans), a fed that continues to pump liquidity into a system that cannot hope to retire that debt. As a result of the destruction of the middle class by offshoring manufacturing, labor costs have declined and job opportunities for the majority of Americans that allowed them to buy homes, send their kids to college, and retire with dignity are disappearing. How many of us believe that things will be better for our kids, as a group, than they were for us? However, the climate for business is vastly improved at the same time that the disparity between the top 1% and the rest of America widens at an exponential pace. Good time for business.

3. Regulatory agencies are crippled - The EPA, NLRB, EEOC, Anti-trust Division of the Justice Department, and countless other watchdog agencies have had their budgets slashed by a dysfunctional Congress to the point that they cannot function. You may not like the EPA, but think back 30 years when rivers were on fire and you couldn't breath in Los Angles. The last time I was in China people were walking around with masks because the air was so bad. Do we want to follow that path?Think about the tobacco companies that lied to us about the effects of cigarettes. Can we trust them?. I see clients every day that have been fired because they are "too old" and because of a horrible decision by the Supreme Court have no way protect themselves. If you think age discrimination is not rampant, you are living in a dream world. The EEOC has neither the staff, nor the political will, to stand up to corporations any longer. Until last year you had protection if your were fired or disciplined for asserting your rights under employment laws. Enter our pro-business friends on the Supreme Court. As a result of a recent decision you no longer have this protection...at least not in a way you could ever win in court. But it is good for business.

Lastly, in response to the comment about truck drivers - My father was a truck driver and his father was a truck driver. Prior to deregulation of the trucking industry you could work hard (my dad worked 60 to 70 hours a week) and provide for your family. We lived in a neighborhood with engineers, accountants, and yes, factory workers. We were all the same in terms of our security and our standard of living. No more. An owner operator scrapes by and every time the cost of fuel goes up he wonders if he can go on. But shipping costs are lower so it is better for business. Is it good for America?

So the question is not whether things are better for business, they clearly are better than they have been since the 1920's. The question is whether things are better for Americans

I agree with the points you have raised, but I don't agree that they apply to small businesses as we have been using the term. "Small business" to government statisticians I think means "under 500 employees" For me, it means businesses that have few or no employees.

When I am engaging in small business activities I could care less about the SCOTUS make up, I am not planning on so many employees as to have a union, and I would steer clear of purely regulated endeavors like securities, banking and now that I know....TRUCKING!

What's the ideal small business? How about Instagram which had 13 employees when the owner sold it for a billion dollars? Well, that's a the top end, but I am also impressed with a guy who can make $50k a year peddling winkets from his garage.

When I say this is the best time in history to start a small business, my reasoning is the following:

1. Thank Zeus for the Internet! This means you can reach the entire world without having even one salesman! A simply astounding, breathtaking structural change in business institutions whose benefit is almost exclusively to the small guy!

2. Thank Zeus for SOFTWARE! This means you can invent/sell value similar to diamonds and the entire mining operation is in your laptop!

3. Thank Zeus for a government obsessed with two party gridlock. It means their entire attention is consumed with holding power and not in squashing small business entrepreneurs, which would be their normal attention.

Put all that together and it is an unprecedented point in time for the entrepreneur. There is just no reason to have to work for wages any longer. This allows a kind of freedom that hasn't been seen in 100 years. This is turning the industrial revolution on its ear.

EDIT: And, I forgot KICKSTARTER!

Mark,

My point was lost in all the detail about how Fortune 500 corporations have co-opted the political process for their own benefit. (SCOTUS is important) The point is that the blue collar workers built post World War II America's prosperity. They bought he cars, refrigerators, stereos (remember those). There are VERY few of those high paying jobs left. Where as a man (and they were mostly men back then) that worked in an unskilled/semi-skilled job, or a trade could make a very good living, today those jobs are gone, or quickly leaving. They were either moved to Malaysia, China, Viet Nam, Mexico...or deregulation (as in the trucking industry) broke the backs of the high paid blue collar workers.

So what does this have to do with your point that small business today is the way to go? Simple; we are propping up the economy with short-term fixes (tech bubble, housing bubble, "quantitative easing" and so on. This cannot go on and when the inevitable day of reckoning comes, there will be no middle class to buy the products and services of small business in the U.S. everyone cannot be a engineer, doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc.

With all due respect Mark, I read in a trade journal that you left the business due to the effects of the last recession. I do not know if that was the real reason, but many, many fine small businesses were hit hard. Those days are likely to come again, and in the not too distant future. That is why the direction the government takes (Tea Party v. Democrats) is relevant. I am not an apologist for the democrats. A plague on their house as well. They allowed spending to spiral out of control, approved NAFTA, and generally thought they could borrow without end. But it is the social policies that protect and nurture the middle class that is what we lost. The take away message is that without the broad middle class, there is no small business, and the America we grew up in is gone.

OK - As Forest Gump famously said: "And that is all I have to say about that!"

(Are you still going to fix my Peach or will you just be sending it back? )

[eth2]

Really? You read that about me?

I did, and I have been looking for the article. I came across it when I was deciding to buy Mike's Peach. It may have been in a thread somewhere. The writer was lamenting your giving up the business as he was a fan of your work. After reading that I decided to buy the Peach.

You are right about the internet. it is such a powerful tool. and maybe the globalization of the economy will save some small businesses in niche markets where special skills are required, but it is difficult for me to see how the more common small businesses will survive or could compete against home country businesses in places like China, or even the EU countries. But I have been wrong before...like when I bough GM stock telling all my friends that they would NEVER file for bankruptcy - right before they did.

[Marvel]

Last fall I spent some time looking into Amazon's e-book deal. It's an incredible opportunity. So, I am writing my first e-book to publish this summer. Another very simple OMB made possible by the democratizing forces of Internet technologies. Also recession proof.

My daughter graduated from the College of Santa Fe (now the University of Santa Fe), with a degree in film. She decided that it is too expensive and hard to make movies, so she has been writing... and writing... and writing. She has sold some short stories, but most have been online magazines. Recently got this one done:

http://eggplantproductions.com/e-books/brass-stars-g-carpenter/

She finally got a short story published in Nature magazine. In another five years I am sure she will be an overnight success.

Writing is something that you can do from anywhere, but is just takes time to get there (talent never hurts either)

Bruce

[John Chi-town]

The "Government" Federal, as well as most local have become more than overbearing in any and all aspects of our collective lives.... Our forefathers fought a revolution for less than 2% of what we as a society put up m with today.

Best regards,

John

[mustang guy]

Really? You read that about me?

I did, and I have been looking for the article. I came across it when I was deciding to buy Mike's Peach. It may have been in a thread somewhere. The writer was lamenting your giving up the business as he was a fan of your work. After reading that I decided to buy the Peach.

You are right about the internet. it is such a powerful tool. and maybe the globalization of the economy will save some small businesses in niche markets where special skills are required, but it is difficult for me to see how the more common small businesses will survive or could compete against home country businesses in places like China, or even the EU countries. But I have been wrong before...like when I bough GM stock telling all my friends that they would NEVER file for bankruptcy - right before they did.

I bought airline stocks right after 9/11 touting that the government won't let them fail. In my mind it was a matter of being beaten by terrorism. The gov't did not come to the rescue of those airlines as they did the autoworkers later. I suppose it was something akin to what happened with the hurricane Katrina slipup by FEMA, then all the sudden FEMA became go-getters. In any event, I lost some money on that gamble. It happens. I had Enron too.

[beeker]

I have to do some reading to catch up and will do soon. I just have to toss in with my family businesses which i took over 1 at about 23years of age. We sold out and i went a different direction after 5 years of being sole owner. Then 12 years later the irs and state sent me bogus taxes i owed that I had the most difficult time...1, remembering time scale of the final year in particular. Long story short i worked with my lawyer who only once showed up late out of about 25 years of serving my family pulled through with me not paying what was not due to me to pay. it did pay my atty tho

The nearset one to my heart and most recent is with installing another paint booth to a shop i ran in the town i live now. Simple terms to get this done there were 33, thats thirty three desks the papers for the new booth had to cross before being built. I include this building was a 40 year grandfathered in body shop. I appreciate emissions and they have taken their toll on myself and every auto/fleet etc..painter i know as well as the earth...yet again it put a light on in my soul or rather putt the light out...i truly love perfection bar none to be the finest at what i do...i love auto paint and still own everything from a sandblaster to a color eye have done hundreds of near and more than $100k frame offs not to mention awards from lexus to gm. I painted possibly the most rare car on the planet quite a resume.

The lights are out now i do paint rep work partially due to health but i truly lost the love of my life. got my favorite gun still. once had at least 40 diffrerent nib guns most were given for me. Still i like the tri coat jobs i did with my jga industrial 510 with an 80 cap lol by the way it wont last but if you like sata the harbor freight $15 gun sprays just as good as a sata 4000, actually better( it just wont last, tops use 4months constant use lol)...i didnt like the 4000, actually didnt like sata at all and was personally critiqued by a german from sata who we used a translator to converse, he was an idiot lol seriously but at the time they gave me 4 digital 2000's that i used rarely for certain colors but would take a gta cup gun first. I did like the sata mini 4...even more than the mini 3000. My prefered gun bar none is a kremlin anodized blue...give me a plural system and let me paint til i die lol iv owned and used them all the iwata is good for a painter. sata is good for any bum. the gti with standox or basf would be my choice heck even give me some sherwin or rollie williams clear lets get it on.

im basically disabled now but i think that paperwork really killed the outter layer of my heart and drive.

The govt, local, state and now even international american govt hahaha gawd they kill people

Blessings and good wealth to all

[BigStewMan]

She finally got a short story published in Nature magazine. In another five years I am sure she will be an overnight success.

congratulations Bruce -- i hope she is very successful. Writing is rewarding. I wrote often during my Coast Guard days. I'd stand behind the crowds as they listened to the Commanding Officer speak. I'd tell myself, "there listening to his voice; but, those are my words."

I found that very satisfying.

[eth2]

Last fall I spent some time looking into Amazon's e-book deal. It's an incredible opportunity. So, I am writing my first e-book to publish this summer. Another very simple OMB made possible by the democratizing forces of Internet technologies. Also recession proof.

My daughter graduated from the College of Santa Fe (now the University of Santa Fe), with a degree in film. She decided that it is too expensive and hard to make movies, so she has been writing... and writing... and writing. She has sold some short stories, but most have been online magazines. Recently got this one done:

http://eggplantproductions.com/e-books/brass-stars-g-carpenter/

She finally got a short story published in Nature magazine. In another five years I am sure she will be an overnight success.

Writing is something that you can do from anywhere, but is just takes time to get there (talent never hurts either)

Bruce

Bruce,

I also bought the book on Amazon. I was fascinated by the reviewer's comparison to a revenge western. "A gunslinger and her psychotic cyber-horse blaze a trail of vengeance across the stars." Guess I am REALLY getting old when a modern western shifts from Texas to "blazing a trail across the universe." For me a Western is about Roy Rogers and Flicka.

Earl

[mustang guy]

I have to do some reading to catch up and will do soon. I just have to toss in with my family businesses which i took over 1 at about 23years of age. We sold out and i went a different direction after 5 years of being sole owner. Then 12 years later the irs and state sent me bogus taxes i owed that I had the most difficult time...1, remembering time scale of the final year in particular. Long story short i worked with my lawyer who only once showed up late out of about 25 years of serving my family pulled through with me not paying what was not due to me to pay. it did pay my atty tho

The nearset one to my heart and most recent is with installing another paint booth to a shop i ran in the town i live now. Simple terms to get this done there were 33, thats thirty three desks the papers for the new booth had to cross before being built. I include this building was a 40 year grandfathered in body shop. I appreciate emissions and they have taken their toll on myself and every auto/fleet etc..painter i know as well as the earth...yet again it put a light on in my soul or rather putt the light out...i truly love perfection bar none to be the finest at what i do...i love auto paint and still own everything from a sandblaster to a color eye have done hundreds of near and more than $100k frame offs not to mention awards from lexus to gm. I painted possibly the most rare car on the planet quite a resume.

The lights are out now i do paint rep work partially due to health but i truly lost the love of my life. got my favorite gun still. once had at least 40 diffrerent nib guns most were given for me. Still i like the tri coat jobs i did with my jga industrial 510 with an 80 cap lol by the way it wont last but if you like sata the harbor freight $15 gun sprays just as good as a sata 4000, actually better( it just wont last, tops use 4months constant use lol)...i didnt like the 4000, actually didnt like sata at all and was personally critiqued by a german from sata who we used a translator to converse, he was an idiot lol seriously but at the time they gave me 4 digital 2000's that i used rarely for certain colors but would take a gta cup gun first. I did like the sata mini 4...even more than the mini 3000. My prefered gun bar none is a kremlin anodized blue...give me a plural system and let me paint til i die lol iv owned and used them all the iwata is good for a painter. sata is good for any bum. the gti with standox or basf would be my choice heck even give me some sherwin or rollie williams clear lets get it on.

im basically disabled now but i think that paperwork really killed the outter layer of my heart and drive.

The govt, local, state and now even international american govt hahaha gawd they kill people

Blessings and good wealth to all

I haven't tried the water based paints yet. They say they aren't as bad for your health, yada yada. My favorite gun was a Binks Model 7. It's been 20 years since I've used that one. I think I still have it somewhere.