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“Verity
- the quality or state of being true or real; Balderdash – nonsense."
Miriam-Webster
Online Dictionary
Verities
& Balderdash
The
Changing Political Landscape
Edited by Bob Robinson
December 19, 2011
According
to the email that has been
floating around the Internet for the past few years, this is a real
letter sent
by an employer to his employees. Read it, then see below for some links
I
found.
This
is just another right-wing
conservative email that may have some truth in it... or it may not. So
why add
it to my expanding list of “right wing” commentaries that I’ve chosen
to
include in a Verities & Balderdash format? This is why...
While
I was in California, I had my
own public relations business. One of my clients was an earthworm
farmer. He had
an idea. It would provide cheap, easy to replenish food - high in
protein - for
the poor of third world countries. Even here at home with the right
promotion.
It
would provide an entrepreneurial
opportunity for hundreds of people wishing to build their own
businesses. We
put our heads together and developed a marketing plan that put
Earthworm
Farming on the map. He got nationwide exposure for an earthworm recipe
contest
that culminated in a media event at the Los Angeles Press Club. By
then, due to
the exposure, he had started helping others get into the business. It
was a
success. And - just as an aside - he was an extremely lucrative client
for me.
After
two years of building a
successful marketing enterprise, the Securities & Exchange
Commission stepped
in and ordered a ‘cease and desist’ until he could prove he was doing
nothing
wrong. He did. Prove it. Over and over and over. He responded to their
every
query... at the expense of thousands of dollars in legal and accounting
fees.
Finally, he said the hell with it and closed his doors.
He
didn’t leave the country, but he
retired a millionaire to his home in the South before the Federal
Government
could turn him into a pauper. I moved on to other clients, but there
were
dozens in his company who found themselves out of work. And dozens more
who
likely struggled and finally lost their businesses. This was in 1977.
Is
the following letter real? To me,
it is. Read it and weep.
To
All My Valued Employees,
There
have been some rumblings around
the office about the future of this
company, and more specifically, your job. As
you know, the economy
has changed for the worse and
presents many challenges.
However, the
good news is this: The economy doesn’t’
pose a threat to your job.
What
does threaten your
job however, is the changing political
landscape in this
country. Of course, as
your employer, I am forbidden to tell
you whom to vote for - it is against the law to
discriminate based on political affiliation,
race, creed, religion,
etc.
Please
vote for who you think
will serve your
interests the best.
However, let me tell you some little
tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is
in your best interest. First, while it is
easy to spew rhetoric
that casts
employers against employees, you have to
understand that for every business owner there
is a back story.
This
back story is often neglected
and overshadowed by
what you see and
hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes
outside. You saw my
big home at last
years Christmas party. I’m sure all
these flashy icons of
luxury conjure up
some idealized thoughts about my life.
However, what you don’t see is the back story.
I
started this company 12 years ago. At that
time, I lived in a
300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years.
My entire living
space was converted
into an office so I could put forth
100%
effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually
employ you.
My
diet consisted of Ramen
Pride noodles because every dollar I
spent went back into
this company. I
drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a
defective transmission. I didn’t have time to
date. Often times,
I stayed home on weekends, while my
friends went out drinking
and partying.
In fact, I was married to my business
--
hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.
Meanwhile,
my friends got jobs. They
worked 40 hours a
week and made a modest
$50K a year and spent every dime
they
earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in
expensive homes and wore fancy designer
clothes. Instead
of hitting Nordstrom’s for the
latest hot fashion item,
I was trolling
through the Goodwill store extracting
any clothing item that didn’t look like it was
birthed in the 70’s.
My
friends refinanced their mortgages
and lived a life of
luxury. I, however,
did not. I put my time, my
money, and my
life into a business --- with a vision that
eventually, some day, I too, will be able to
afford these luxuries
my friends supposedly had.
So,
while you physically
arrive at the office at 9 am,
mentally check in at
about noon, and
then leave at 5 pm, I don’t. There is no
“off” button for me. When you leave the
office, you are done and
you have a weekend all to yourself.
I
unfortunately do not have the freedom.
I eat, ****,
and breathe this
company every minute of the day. There is
no rest. There is no weekend. There is no
happy hour. Every day
this business is attached to me like a 1
day old baby.
You,
of course, only see the fruits of
that garden -- the
nice house, the
Mercedes, the vacations... You never
realize the back story and the sacrifices I’ve
made. Now, the
economy is falling apart and I, the guy
that made all the
right decisions and
saved his money, have to bail out
all
the people who didn’t.
The
people that overspent their
paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the
same luxuries that
I earned and
sacrificed a decade of my life for.
Yes, business ownership has its benefits but
the price I’ve paid
is steep and not without wounds.
Unfortunately, the cost
of running this
business, and employing you, is starting
to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and
let me tell you why:
I
am being taxed to death and the
government thinks I don’t pay enough. I
have state taxes.
Federal taxes.
Property taxes. Sales and use taxes.
Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes.
Unemployment taxes.
Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax
man to manage all
these taxes and then
guess what? I
have to pay taxes
for employing him. Government
mandates and regulations
and all the
accounting that goes with it, now
occupy
most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the
US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly
taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check
was? Zero. Nada.
Zilch.
The
question I have is this: Who is stimulating
the economy? Me, the
guy who has provided 14 people good
paying jobs and serves
over 2,200,000
people per year with a flourishing
business? Or, the single mother sitting at
home pregnant with
her fourth child waiting for her next
welfare check?
Obviously,
government feels the latter
is the economic
stimulus of this
country. The fact is, if I deducted
(Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and
you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should
you? That’s nuts. Who
wants to get
rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well,
I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.
Here is what many
of you don’t understand ... to stimulate
the economy you
need to stimulate what
runs the economy. Had suddenly
government mandated to me that I didn’t need
to pay taxes, guess
what?
Instead of depositing that $288,000
into the Washington black-hole, I would have
spent it, hired more
employees, and generated substantial
economic growth. My
employees would have
enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut
in
the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can
forget it now.
When
you have a comatose man on
the verge of death,
you don’t
defibrillate and shock his thumb
thinking that will bring him back to life, do
you? Or, do you
defibrillate his heart?
Business is at the
heart of America and always has been. To
restart it, you must
stimulate it, not
kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers
in
Washington believe the mud of America are the essential
drivers of the American economic engine.
Nothing could be further from the
truth and this is
the type of change
you can keep. So
where am I going with all this? It’s
quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on
me, or my company,
my reaction will be swift and
simple. I fire you. I fire
your
co-workers. You
can then plead
with the government
to pay for your
mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s
future. Frankly, it isn’t my problem any more. Then,
I will close this company down, move to
another country, and retire.
You
see, I’m done. I’m done with a
country that
penalizes the productive
and gives to the unproductive. My
motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my
citizenship.
While
tax cuts to 95% of
America sounds great on paper,
don’t forget the
back story: If there is
no job, there is no income to tax.
A tax
cut on zero dollars is zero. So, when you make
decision to vote, ask yourself, who
understands the economics
of business ownership and who
doesn’t? Whose policies will endanger
your job? Answer those
questions and you
should know who might
be the one capable of saving your
job.
While the media wants to tell you “It’s the economy
Stupid” I’m telling you it isn’t.
If
you lose your job,
it won’t be at the hands of the economy;
it will be at the
hands of a political
hurricane that swept through this
country, steamrolled the Constitution, and
will have changed its
landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me in
the South Caribbean sitting on a beach,
retired,
and with no
employees to worry about.
Signed,
Your Boss
Anywhere,
USA
Posted
by the Advisor Analyst... click
here.
Posted
by the Free Republic (be sure
to read some of the comments)... click here.
Posted
by the Forum Garden... click
here.
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