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A Milestone to Celebrate: I Have Closed All My Businesses in Ventura County, California
Coyote Blog ^ | January 2, 2014 | Warren Meyer

Posted on 01/03/2014 10:10:21 AM PST by 1rudeboy

[poster's note: Warren Meyer is primarily in the business of running recreation facilities on government lands.]

Normally, the closure of a business operation or division is not grounds for a celebration, but in this case I am going to make an exception.  At midnight on December 31, I not only drank a toast to the new year, but also to finally getting all my business operations out of Ventura County, California.

Never have I operated in a more difficult environment.  Ventura County combines a difficult government environment with a difficult employee base with a difficult customer base.

And so I got out.  Hallelujah.

PS-  People frequently talk about taxes in California being what makes the state "anti-business."  That may be, but I guess I never made enough money to have the taxes really bite.  But taxes are only a small part of the equation.

 


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Outdoors; Politics
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Mr. Meyer wrote some excellent commentary on the last government shutdown, and how it was (politically) managed to cause maximum pain to the citizenry (and his business).
1 posted on 01/03/2014 10:10:21 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Last business out, turn out the lights.


2 posted on 01/03/2014 10:13:00 AM PST by FreeAtlanta (Liberty or Big Government - you can't have both.)
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To: 1rudeboy
Three years until Kalifornia become the Mad Max movie in real life.

You can tell your grandkids about how CA once had electricity and cars. Sadly, they won't believe you.

3 posted on 01/03/2014 10:16:59 AM PST by PATRIOT1876
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To: 1rudeboy

I wonder if Ventura County will adopt a retroactive escape tax.


4 posted on 01/03/2014 10:23:33 AM PST by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: mountn man

the problems cited in the article are what happens when a governmental body fails to recognize the symbiotic relationship between business and government. The relationship must remain in balance without one side or the other taking command.

When an electorate is oblivious to the downside to taxing and regulating for profit businesses out of operation, sooner or later the trend is not reverseable. This happens due to governments using deficit spending to bridge gaps between spending and revenues. Ya see, once they raise taxes beyond a business ability to operate, revenues decline but that trend is not noticed as the government borrows more money to cover the shortfalls until they go over the dam after driving businesses away.


5 posted on 01/03/2014 10:37:53 AM PST by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: Mouton

-— until they go over the dam after driving businesses away. -—

And Voila! Detroit.

The deafening silence from the media regarding the death of Motown is shocking.


6 posted on 01/03/2014 10:41:35 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: 1rudeboy

I live in Ventura county I am very sorry to hear this! BUT GOOD FOR
YOU, CA. SUCKS FOR BUSINESS! I owned businesses in the area
also closed them a couple of years ago, the stress was unbearable
so congratulations you will now be sleeping again!


7 posted on 01/03/2014 10:44:23 AM PST by Kit cat (OBummer must go)
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To: 1rudeboy

This kind of thing needs to be the subject of a reality show.


8 posted on 01/03/2014 10:48:53 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: 1rudeboy

Come to think of it, after an announcement a while back of the huge flow of businesses from California, the MSM has not said a peep. Since California government is still increasingly oppressive, I find it hard to imagine that these capitalist refugees have returned.


9 posted on 01/03/2014 10:54:35 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (There Is Still A Very Hot War On Terror, Just Not On The MSM. Rantburg.com)
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To: 1rudeboy

These bureaucrats think money actually grows on trees and that anything is possible if they have the power to assess a fee or impute a tax.

They don’t care about ‘business,’ work, or repercussions. They money supply is endless.

They are wrong, and one day they will choke under the masses of illegals, professionally unemployed and the chronically ‘entitled.’

They will find out the dire consequences one day when those masses come for those bureaucrats in their homes. They deserve it.


10 posted on 01/03/2014 10:54:39 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: PATRIOT1876
You can tell your grandkids about how CA once had electricity and cars. Sadly, they won't believe you.

My dad was stationed at Mather in Sacramento in the 50s, my sister was born there.

I came along later but we made pilgrimages out there when I was a kid, as did virtually everyone from the Great Plains, if they could scrape the money together. Breathtaking. Infinitely blessed and prosperous. The land of milk and honey.

11 posted on 01/03/2014 10:59:51 AM PST by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey

It’s amazing how fast the milk and honey dried up when the fed Gummint cut off all the water to protect a small fish in San Francisco Bay (that died off anyway).


12 posted on 01/03/2014 11:09:18 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: 1rudeboy

“...Ask anyone in the recreation business where their most difficult customers are, and they likely will name the Los Angeles area...”

This caught my attention, as the first thing he mentioned was littering. I was stationed in southern Spain while in the U.S.Navy, and I have never been in place with worse littering. It seems that Mexicans do it, too. I suspect that many of the customers this businessman is describing are actually Mexican and not U.S. citizens.


13 posted on 01/03/2014 11:10:42 AM PST by SatinDoll (A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN IS BORN IN THE USA OF USA CITIZEN PARENTS)
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To: 1rudeboy

so who took over the place?

some connected liberal?


14 posted on 01/03/2014 11:12:32 AM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Fightin Whitey

Now it’s the land of Bilk and Dummy.


15 posted on 01/03/2014 11:14:57 AM PST by DPMD
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To: Vince Ferrer

“This kind of thing needs to be the subject of a reality show.”

That would be a great show on my new Conservative Television Network, when I buy up Al Gorezeera cheap after it goes broke and convert it to the new CTN format.

The title would be “We’re Here to Help” and would feature businesses driven out of business (or driven to move to another state) by the government. Perhaps it could be hosted by Rick Perry, like Ronald Reagan did with Death Valley Days.

I also have a Conservative Saturday Night Live comedy hour lined up. Also, a knockoff of the really old sob story Queen for a Day show, only this would feature contestants most in need of medical care they can’t obtain due to the horrors of obamacare. The winner gets a free, all paid medical treatment.

There would be some Candid Camera type shows, at least a couple of which would feature the worst government service ever and shot in places like State Motor Vehicle Departments. I’d hire James O’Keefe and put him in charge of a dozen stealth film crews for these programs. James would be the host of the programs, too.

I’d also have a conservative version of 60 minutes, but would do real research, probably with quite a bit of shaky stuff thrown in to grab peoples’ interest. Probably call it something like “Yellow Dog” or the like. This show would go for the jugular, no holds barred.

Plus numerous shows based on the Internet, like Worst Internet Date Ever, Funniest YouTube Vid Ever, Biggest Internet Ripoff, Best Do-It-Yourself Internet Vid, and a million more.

If only I had the money to start said network.


16 posted on 01/03/2014 11:30:58 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Mouton
Try explaining to people how wealthy people/businesses pay the brunt of the taxes.

They look at their gross income and say "I'm in the 25% tax rate", never taking into account their deductions and exemptions. They don't understand how progressive tax rates work.

Most people look at their check stub and have no clue what FICA taxes are. Even fewer are those who realize that an employer matches FICA taxes. Not only does an employer withhold an employees share of taxes, but the employer is taxed on their employees.

Plus add to that unemployment taxes. California is 7%.

All these mutts calling for a higher minimum wage. Calling for fast food joints to pay $15 an hour. They see a raise of $7.50 an hour as $15k a year. An employer with a simple 10 employees sees a cost of $172,000.

Of course these same mutts don't take into account, that the person who started at min wage and has worked for 2 years, though getting a raise to $15 sounds good, isn't going to like being paid the same as someone who just started their job. Or the person with a job that requires a little more skill or responsibility, that gets more pay, is going to want an equal raise to what they are getting.

A company with 10 min wage employees sees an added cost of $172,000. Add 10 more employees, who though making above min wage, still want comparable raises, and you're talking $344,000.

Now add the costs of Obamacare.

How many businesses will be able to stay open?

17 posted on 01/03/2014 11:36:35 AM PST by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: catnipman
I'm sure NSA/IRS are keeping tabs on you now.

18 posted on 01/03/2014 11:57:00 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi :-)
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To: mountn man

My son returned from LA after 7 years of struggling with a horrible economy, rude and lazy people, high taxes on everything, and fighting laws, and regulations, all in a vane attempt to pay higher prices on everything, including, overpriced living expenses..

Within 6 months in our area of Texas, (Sugar Land, S/W Houston) he has his income tripled, a drastically lower cost of living, happy people, and hardly any unreasonable state or local governmental interference in his business..


19 posted on 01/03/2014 12:05:13 PM PST by carlo3b (Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.. Henry Kissinger)
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To: 1rudeboy
Ironically, Ventura county used to be reliably Republican. Much less liberal than LA to the south or Santa Barbara to the north.

If it was this bad for this guy, imagine what the other counties are like.

20 posted on 01/03/2014 12:20:00 PM PST by doorgunner69
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