13 thoughts on “An American Businessman’s Letter to Obama”

  3. I agree with Lex. Speaking as a small business owner, the first thing I will probably do if things go as I think they will on Tuesday (Dem sweep of pres, house and senate) is go to Walgreens and stock up on Alka Seltzer, as well as prepare to sell a lot of investments so I don’t get creamed by the coming capital gains tax increases.

    Here is the reality of the situation.

    What the Dems don’t realize is the more they penalize guys like me, the worse it will be for my employees – the people the Donks say they are out to help the most.

    Raise my taxes? Fine, I will just cut one employee loose (or more) – I have no problem working the extra hours and I have done all of their jobs before. Work 100 hours a week? No problem. Done that before too. I average 70 as it is. I have done it so long, it is a breeze. I can always cut the profit sharing programs for the employees, lower their health insurance benefits. I can cut loose a long time employee and retrain a new one at a lower wage. Etc, etc.

    I have worked too hard to get where I am and my salary will NOT go down.

    That is real world, and a world that very few of the Dems and their union pals will never even begin to start to immerse themselves in. You can repeat the above scenario millions of times.

    Small business owners, even though we will be the target of many sweeping changes are always the quickest to change and adapt. The reason so many of us are successful is because we can turn on a dime, and out hustle the big guys.

    The only saving grace is that I believe that if Obama gets elected that he will be a sure one termer, then President Palin can get to setting things right.

  4. Strangely, the democrats seem to forget that everyone who isn’t self employed has a job only because some business person decided to hire them. They only keep those jobs when that business person makes the right decisions.

    I really believe that leftist have an unconscious assumption that jobs and other benefits of the economy are a natural phenomena like oxygen in the air. They have no conception that business is a creative, experimental endeavor that requires constant work and innovation just to stay in place much less create more wealth for everyone. They act as if they believe that the economy is a pie that fell from heaven and the only real debate is about how we should divide the pie.

  5. Dan…”if Obama gets elected that he will be a sure one termer, then President Palin can get to setting things right”…I’m afraid that if the Dems win, it will be very difficut to ever get them out. Reasons:

    1)The probable shutting down of alternative sources of information and opinion, via the Orwellian “fairness doctrine.”

    2)Subsidization of organizations which will advocate for the Dems, such as Acorn and many unions.

    3)A continuation and acceleration of the outright vote fraud that we have seen so much of in this election.

    4)”Tax credits” that will convince a big part of the electorate that they have no stake in keeping government spending under control and that they should vote for the party that will continue their subsidies.

    5)Economic stagnation, brought brought about by unwise energy and tax policies, that will undercut the spirit of independence and encourage people to look for centralized solutions.

  6. “What the Dems don’t realize is the more they penalize guys like me, the worse it will be for my employees – the people the Donks say they are out to help the most.”

    Again, I disagree. They do realize it. They do not want people like you to exist.

    They want there to be very large employers with unionized workforces that have to work with the Gov to do anything. And they want high, structural unemployment, like in Europe, so that there is a large permanent class of dependant people who the Government will then “care for” as permanent wards of the state.

    There is no confusion.

    They know exactly what they are doing.

    They are doing it on purpose.

  7. I agree with Lex.

    Conservatives and libertarians often assume that if Democrats and leftists behave as though they don’t understand economics, it must be because they don’t understand economics. In this view it is helpful for conservatives and libertarians to educate Democrats and leftists. I think this view is naive.

    It’s true that Democrats and leftists often don’t understand economics, but on the level of practical politics I think that’s because they don’t need to understand economics. They are dealing primarily in power and patronage, and such considerations are generally at odds with the promotion of societal openness and freedom that facilitate economic growth and efficiency. Leftist pols are primarily rent-seekers who benefit from a dependent population. Why would someone like Obama need to understand economics?

    A politician is someone who will create rules that destroy billions of dollars in value in order to funnel a few thousand bucks to a constituency whose support he wants. This is more true of Democratic and leftist pols than of conservatives and libertarians.

    It’s a mistake to assume that economically perverse outcomes happen only because politicians don’t understand economics. More likely the people complaining about economic perversity don’t understand politics. Leftist pols rarely do anything that does not benefit them personally and politically. If someone else gets screwed it’s not likely to be because the pols overlooked something.

  8. Lex – I understand that I am the one they are after. I don’t think the Dems understand the indirect effects of it, that is the effects on my employees.

    David Foster – You said that it would be very difficult to ever get the Dems out and gave good reasons. The Dems held the House for 40 years plus and did almost every single one of the things you listed, yet the Repubs and Newt took it back in ’95 (only to lose it again). I am not saying that there will be easy times ahead (hence my Alka Seltzer comment) but I do think there will be an end to it all, just as there was before.

  9. Quote:
    “I don’t think the Dems understand the indirect effects of it, that is the effects on my employees.”

    I think they do understand, but so what. They are not concerned about the effect on their constituents. Misery will get them re-elected and empower more ‘redistribution’.

    Quote:
    “The Dems held the House for 40 years plus and did almost every single ..”

    Yes, 40 years. I’ll be dead before 40 years is up. That means Democratic rule of Congress for the rest of my life.

    tom

  10. Dan wrote:
    Lex – I understand that I am the one they are after. I don’t think the Dems understand the indirect effects of it, that is the effects on my employees.

    Whether or not the Democratic pols understand the full effects of their policies, they are not likely to care because they are not likely to be blamed. For example, look at the mortgage-finance debacle. A lot of the policy errors that made it possible were promoted primarily by Democrats, yet it’s mainly Republicans who are being blamed. That’s typical.

  11. I agree with Lex and Jonathan, especially as regards the political class – “A politician is someone who will create rules that destroy billions of dollars in value in order to funnel a few thousand bucks to a constituency whose support he wants”

    And for me, the really scary part is that I wonder if our new political/intellectual elites are angling to essentially gut the independent middle and working class, the small business owners and firms who generate so much of the creativity and so many of the jobs in this country. I would almost be willing to swear an oath that there are many at the top of the heap would wouldn’t mind seeing this country return to an oligarchy, with a small and powerful ruling class, and a powerless and dependent rabble, who do as they are told. Rather like Mexico, or Russia, or any European country you could mention in the Middle Ages

    An independent and secure middle class, who refuse to do as they are ordered by their so-called betters must be a very great frustration for an ambitious oligarchial class.

  13. Yes, 40 years. I’ll be dead before 40 years is up. That means Democratic rule of Congress for the rest of my life

    Tom, I don’t think it’ll take 40 years this time to get to the state we were in in the 1970’s. Reagan was elected in direct response to the conditions of the ’70’s and it took longer to get to that point because the economy was growing after great depression and WWII. Obama and his buddies may lose the house in two years time.

    England had a much longer history of socialism but abandoned much of it at the same time America elected Reagan. The problem is that we now have at least two generations who never lived with the threat of communism and who don’t remember the 70’s. The success of free market policies have lead these people to believe that they are entitled to a certain lifestyle and the baby boomers don’t care who pays for their entitlements as they coast into retirement.

    Like Dan, I’m a business owner. I won’t hire anyone else. I may cut back on how much I work and I will take some money out of my business and put it into tax advantaged investments like municipal bonds. That will reduce the amount of work the businesses that service my company do and it will undoubtedly lead to job losses at those businesses.

    I don’t think the political class cares about the economic impact of their policies. However, the difference between America and Europe has always been the belief in the individual and a willingness to abandon old ideologies. I’m not as certain that the Democrats will be as successful at creating a large permanently dependent class. To create such a class, Americans would have to accept a standard of living lower than their parents. This was not the case in Europe as it became more socialized in the 20th century. I don’t think Americans are willing to make that trade.

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