Posted on 07/25/2011 7:22:50 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
Broke! 10 Facts About The Financial Condition Of American Families That Will Blow Your Mind
Hiring workers has become so complicated and so expensive that many small business owners want to avoid it at all cost.
For example, a small business owner identified as "007" recently left the following comment on one of my recent articles....
Speaking as a small employer, I would rather have a root canal than another employee. Let’s see. You first have to hire someone you trust without some labor lawyer suing you for some type of discrimination. Then you have OSHA to make sure your work place is safe.
Then you have workmans compensation insurance, unemployment taxes, health insurance, liability insurance, now Obamacare. Oh be careful not to be deemed to have a “hostile work environment”. Then you have to negotiate the labor laws. The Department of Labor is constantly cranking out regulation.
Then you get the pleasure of paying payroll taxes both state and federal along with the required filing of a multitude of payroll forms. Miss filing or paying these taxes and you will be crushed with interest and penalties.
Of course, you are competing with businesses that can hire at a fraction of the cost of American Labor and with very little regulations. In this economy, no one in their right mind is hiring into this unstable and declining economy.
If business turns down all you have to worry about is laying off workers. Of course your unemployment insurance tax will go up 200% for years. Then you only have to then worry about a wrongful termination law suit.
If you happen to navigate all of these hurdles and make a profit, watch out for greedy unions waiting to suck the life out of your business. Then you face Obama and the socialist democrats at the end of the day wanting to redistribute your wealth demanding crushing taxes that strip away your working capital. He wants to redistribute it to people who don’t work or pay tax at all.
My view, let someone else be the crazy hero to put their life savings at risk to hire employees in this hostile employer environment. I think I will just get a computer to answer my phones, computerize every function of the office, I even have robot floor cleaners to avoid cleaning crews.
Truth is this country has made having employees a tremendous, beuracratic, expensive, legal risk. I am trying to keep the employees I have. However, this golden goose is on strike and will not be hiring further until it makes economic sense to do so.
Water, soil pollution problems brought to attention of federal leaders Posted: Jul 20, 2011 8:33 PM CDT Updated: Jul 20, 2011 9:16 PM CDT By Jeremy King - email News Headlines More>>Agencies push for immigration law changeChanges at Birmingham's airportCentral AL brings home several Alabama Tourism AwardsCrime Stoppers July 24: Most WantedPratt City families worry about upcoming school yearCity of Tuscaloosa unveils rebuilding plan for tornado-torn townEnsley shooting leaves one man dead, injures anotherJefferson County commissioners to meet ThursdayArrest made in Calera homicideFallen soldier remembered by communityBIRMINGHAM-AL - The people with the power to enforce federal environmental laws got an eyeful -- and an earful -- during a visit to Alabama this week.
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and even the FBI, are taking part in an initiative to listen to concerns about pollution. Tuesday, federal leaders spent time looking at conditions along the Black Warrior River. Wednesday, they walked the banks of Village Creek in Birmingham.
Then, they attended a public forum where people from communities in Jefferson, Shelby, and Walker Counties freely voiced their concerns about a multitude of issues.
"We have a battery of cast iron pipe plants, steel industries, metal galavanizers, all sorts of industries up and down Village Creek which are discharging large amounts of pollutants on a daily basis," said Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper. "This is unacceptable."
Brooke pointed out many people fish downstream from the pollution. He is concerned about many factors, including fish consumption and the effects on human health. Overall, he wants a crackdown on heavy industry polluting the creek and a larger watershed that touches many communities throughout Central Alabama.
Others spoke about the effects of mining operations on waterways.
"Stripping coal 100 feet from the banks of the river. I don't understand how you can justify that in any way," said Lecil Stacks.
"It seems like the only options for small-town Alabama, rural Alabama, are mining -- are landfills -- are some type of toxic industry," said Sunny Montgomery of Shelby County, who is among those opposed to plans for a new quarry in the town of Vincent.
Many others spoke about pollution in the Collegeville neighborhood. They spoke about soil contamination from heavy industry in the community just east of North Birmingham.
"They provide jobs for us, but that does not give them the right to kill us," said Jimmy Smith, who detailed how two of his daughters have battled cancer. One daughter has died.
"Nobody has the right to poison the air or the water or the ground," Smith added.
"We get tips on what we should do to keep our children safe," said Ellen Cummings, who read from the list of tips.
"How can we tell our children not to go outside and play in soil? They are children. Should we be in a bubble?" she asked.
Cummings read more items on the list: "Not to plant a garden. After playing outside, make sure your children wash their hands frequently, especially before eating."
"We want to have the same quality of life as everyone else," she concluded. "We want some justice done for the Collegeville area. We want the companies to be accountable."
"You know the rate that we are dying. You know that we have come to you before. We need help!" added Vivian Starks, the Collegeville neighborhood president. "I'm a citizen of the USA, and I don't feel that I have to beg you guys to do something in my neighborhood."
The federal leaders listening, many of whom are relatively new in office, promised action. They took detailed notes and asked various speakers for more information in order to conduct follow-up.
Some people got the action they wanted before the meeting was even over. A man who was in the planning stages of a new underground mine in northwest Jefferson County responded to the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of people in the room.
Ronnie Bryant of Warrior Investment Company pointed out many people are employed by mines and earn good salaries. He also discussed Ensley's industrial past, and how the reddish haze that used to linger over the area is now gone with the demise of such heavy industry in the community. Also gone with that haze, he pointed out, are a lot of jobs that left the area, and Ensley's commercial district is now a shadow of its former self.
Bryant's particular mining plans had not been a specific focus of the discussion during the forum. But an anti-mining sentiment was clear. And if people did not want mining to expand, Bryant said, he would back away from his plans.
"There's so much opposition to these guys making a living that I feel like that there's no need in me putting out any effort to provide any work, and so as I stood against the wall here today, basically, I've decided not to open the mine," Bryant said.
"Thank God," someone called out.
Later, Bryant told reporters his decision was not final, but he was "fairly positive" he would not move forward with the project.
Federal leaders advised that if business owners and community members came together in a setting in which each person would have a voice, perhaps industry, people, and the environment could find a way to co-exist.
I think this "Riverkeepers" group is a radical environmental group that doesn't care how many people are hurt.
I would imagine the higher paying jobs are executives, engineers and geologists.
I started it after seeing the movie twice, and just finished it a couple of weeks ago. Over and over and over, I kept saying, how is it possible that she wrote this 54 years ago.
We rented a NetFlix movie about her life, with a lot of neat footage. And of course a lot about the Russian Revolution and how bad things were then... so it’s been going on more than 100 years now....
We have cisterns and a small garden area (AZ). The jackboots better stay out of it. I’m one of the 50% that’s paying (a lot) of federal income tax, I’m almost waiting for it just to collapse, so tired of all the moochers with their paws out.
Less than one minute apart ...mirrors of thought and impact.
“Mr. Bryant can’t be an Ayn Rand hero. He shows too much concern for ordinary people.”
So how are the ordinary people fairing now? Do you not think that the message that Ayn Rand was attempting to convey would result in ordinary people having the opportunity to become extraordinary people?
This is how fascism works folks. The politically well connected will use their money and influence through lobbyists, unions, and manipulation of regulations and tax codes to squeeze out any competition, because they don’t want the small players to become the big players, and become a dierct threat to their gravy train.
That's not the only thing that passed you by.
I made it to page 150 on my first attempt (during the 2004 election campaign). Had to put it down, picked it up about a year later and finished it.
Contractors in various forms, mostly. One is a Vet that's been trying to sell his (fairly successful and quite lucrative) practice and can't find any buyers. He told me that other Vets, or businessmen, just don't want the hassle.
One computer contractor I know very well, limited his billable hours every year. His attitude? "At a certain point, I pay almost 2 out of every 3 dollars I make to the government. Why bother?". Eventually, he retired to play with his grandkids, an eminently better pastime.
Atlas has been shrugging for a good while.
Well, why do you think ixtl and I are up here in the Tetons?
We are searching for a certain gulch! It isn’t in Colorado, for sure!
” I swear by my life and my love of it....”
I heard the Cliff notes version of Atlas Shrugged is 150 pages. (Just kidding)
And exactly what is that supposed to mean?
Heh! I’m in that vicinity, have a large-ish tank under my deck, and I won’t tell *anybody* if such a thing comes to pass.
BTW, those of us who had already read AS are generally amazed at how accurate a prediction it has been of the Obama Administration. Or perhaps unsurprised and amazed all at once, especially if you read Dreams during the Dem Presidential primary season.
That's why it's such a good book. I urge you to pick it up again. And when you do, you must follow freeper Publius' threads on each chapter.
Ping to Publius for a link to the threads.
It’s spreading on Twitter. It’ll get picked up.
A For twelve years you’ve been asking “Who is John Galt?” This is John Galt speaking. I’m the man who’s taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You’ve heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man’s sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you’ve demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You’ve sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you?
Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your ‘brother-love’ morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won’t find them now, when you need them more than ever.
We’re on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I’m telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason — that it was right to pursue one’s own happiness as one’s principal goal in life. I don’t consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else’s life.
I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don’t force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man’s right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.
You’ve allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they’re born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is ‘original sin’. That’s inmpossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man’s choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn’t come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man’s will is not free.
And then there’s your ‘brother-love’ morality. Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven’t earned it to accept it? If it’s virtuous to give, isn’t it then selfish to take?
Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he’s keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.
You know that you can’t give away everything and starve yourself. You’ve forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it’s your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn’t built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.
Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than ikts neighbors. Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.
To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.
If you’ve understood what I’ve said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don’t accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don’t exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don’t sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.
The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man,
nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.
( condensed version of Galt’s speech )
What part of Texas are you in?
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