Blame me for job losses (a businessman explains why businesses don't want to hire today)

American Thinker ^ | Dec 11,2008 | C. Edmund Wright

[Mamzelle]

Pick the ones with the “obama” stickers first...

[joe fonebone]

I have to agree with you there. And this is true for the employees also. When I worked in the shop, and had to go from shop to shop to follow the work, my saying was “ Notice, yeah I’ll give notice. They will notice me wheeling my toolbox out the back door

[bert]

In spite of the bailout BA has no liability to the workers. The law was written to prevent sudden plant closures and move to a different location. The law is not applicable to a business failure.

The lost benefits can be claimed in the bankruptcy proceeding.

The loss of state business should be no big deal. Dealing with a crook is not a privilege.

[Repeal The 17th]

I still see the current economic situation as only getting worse...
and I have seen no valid analysis from any reliable source
as to where the “bottom” is to this “cycle”.
It may be true that Atlas has shrugged and this is not a “cycle” at all.

[quesney]

Somebody send this piece to the WSJ. It’s excellent.

[Dan(9698)]

Lots of businesses, especially small ones, get lots back in terms of tax breaks, credits, low interest loans, etc

It is obvious you have never run a business.

You have to pay taxes before you get a "tax break" or "Credit". You have to be paying intrest before "low interest loans" are a benefit.

With all the parasites dragging your business down, it is hard to keep dragging along.

I know, all these people are standing behind you.

That is because that is where you keep your wallet.

I had a business about 20 years ago. I gave it up when the medical insurance cost increased to the amount of the employees wages.

I read Atlas Schrugged also. Now it is just my Wife and Me.

[hunter112]

What's really interesting about this story is at the end. We conservatives all knew that the Wall Street bailout was wrong, but I'm surprised to see the domino effect take place so rapidly. Bank of America is being pressured to piss money away on Republic's union employees, just because it got a bailout.

I'm certain that some of the $700 billion will be diverted towards the Detroit Big Three, it's almost like Bush is deliberately greasing the skids under the economy as a welcome mat for Zero. He's going to be up to his ass in alligators by Inauguration Day at the rate we're going.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Lots of businesses, especially small ones, get lots back in terms of tax breaks, credits, low interest loans, etc.

How amicable of you. We business owners get breaks on burdens that shouldn't be imposed in the first place.

[wmfights]

Republic is a small-business victim of the “credit crunch” I’ve been telling you about here for sixteen months now. Their business of making new and replacement windows fell off sharply, along with the collapse of the residential construction industry.

That was a big factor, but what doesn't get told is how property taxes also played a role. They were able to get a big tax break when they expanded operations, but when the tax break ended they had to sell the business. The new owner then sold the business to another party when the taxes went up again with the new reassessment. The last owner is now relocating the plant in IA, with non unionized workers.

[AlmaKing]

Prosecuted for what?

Are you smoking dope?

You’re an anti-business troll. Go back to DU.

[atomicweeder]

But pay them with WHAT? Liberals seem to be clueless as to where "the money" comes from

A lot of people assume that business owners have a secret room with piles and piles of gold in it.

In my own business (a dozen employees), I used to have $800,000 cash reserves. Because of business downturns, I now have $400,000. The other $400k was paid out in bonuses, salaries, etc. to keep up employee morale, keep people on payroll that I should have laid off, etc.

Just call me evil.

[Las Vegas Ron]

And, business owners make both salary and profits

Oh yeah, the money just rolls in in heaps I tell ya. Them profits are just so easy to achieve.

You don't have a clue

[Las Vegas Ron]

You’re an anti-business troll. Go back to DU.

I was going to respond to that post(er) too but I would have been banned for what I would have said.

You did good, thanks.

[adorno]

Like many business owners, we are no longer willing to take all of the financial and legal risks and put up with all of the aggravation of owning and running a business. Not with the prospects of even higher taxes, more regulation, more litigation and more emboldened bureaucrats on the horizon. Like others we know, we are getting out while the getting is, well, tolerable. Many who aren't getting out are scaling back.

The country as a whole has entered into a "perfect storm" from which it will be almost impossible to get out of, or will take many years to get out of.

The storm took years to build up, starting with the mortgage crisis and which worked its way into the credit markets and the stock markets and the insurance companies.

That storm was initiated with the requirement for easy credit to people who would ordinarily not qualify for purchasing of homes. The people who insisted on those requirements were the democrats, although there were a bunch of republicans who went along with the scheme.

Now, those same people who brought the country to ruin are in charge of fixing the messes they created. Except, they won't admit that it is they who created the messes.

The American voters, who are mostly ill-informed about how the country got into this mess, were promised "change" and "hope" and relief from the problems created by an economy in a downturn. Those voters, a huge number of them being ignorant about how the problems got started and being even more ignorant about how the free-markets and capitalism works, then went along with the promises of "change" and "hope" and in reality ended up voting for the absolute worst case scenario: the people put in charge, including Obama, don't know how squat about free-markets economics, or are dead-set against capitalism, and have a mindset towards socialism. All of which equates to a lot more misery to come in the years ahead.

Hence, the perfect storm: a clueless and inexperienced president, a cabinet composed of many of the same people who created the mess, a socialist congress in charge or the purse strings and monetary policy, and a people that for the most part are too ignorant to know how an economy and a government works. That is a deadly combination, and only a lot more misery will hopefully convince the electorate that they've made some very huge mistakes.

[DogBarkTree]

They actually are happy that less customers walk through the door so they can collect their checks without actually working.

You said it. I fired 3 Obama voting, mouth breathing, slack jaws at the end of November. They got the change they deserved.

[rbg81]

It guess it depends on the business. Ours is software development and consulting.

When we bid on a job, we figure the benefits, profit, overhead, and G&A into our rate. We only do time and materials (T&M) type contracts, do we get our profit regardless.

We have very low overhead and G&A, so we tend to get the work. Effectively, we have no office—just laptops and servers. Lately, we’ve just been using software hosting services, so soon we won’t even have our servers. Very low overhead. I’m a full-time professor and part-time business owner, so my benefits are already paid for.

If the customer wants to pay more, he can go somewhere else. We are also in a state “development” zone, so we tax credits based on our annual revenue increase and number of employees. Effectively, we make $$ instead of paying taxes.

You can accuse me of not having a clue, but we’ve increased revenue and profits every years since inception (5 years).

[lonevoice]

Excellent article, as well as is post #1 you appended to it. Atlas shrugged on November 4, 2008 and there is no magic winch to stop that falling globe, pull it onto his back and force him to carry its weight once more. It will take a little while yet for much of the liberal world to understand this law of physics due to the federal government’s smoke and mirrors pretense that they possess some kind of super secret anti-gravity engine. They don’t.

[dalereed]

“Like many problems in today’s economy....just look to Congress for the answer...again!”

Every one of them took the signature of the one world socialist in the White House, Bush!!!

[Right Wing Assault]

Pick the ones with the “obama” stickers first...

I don't see many of them anymore. I guess they know what's coming at them soon.

[struggle]

You can always become a member of Obama’s civilan force...</s>