This is a re-post from eight years ago. I still feel the same.
I see you standing here, asking for help, about once a week. You are always polite, and I respect that. I’d like to do something for you… something that would matter long-term. Giving you a few notes or coins now and then may be fine, but I’d really like to improve your situation more permanently.
In other words, I’d like to give you a job.
I used to hire people, and I especially liked hiring people who had been denied breaks. I did that whenever I could. If you and I could be transported back in time, I’d hire you. And I’d feel good about it, because I think having a job would do you a lot of good.
That fact is, however, that I can’t hire you, and I’d like you to know why.
I used to run my own contracting firm. I enjoyed the work and I liked being able to drive past a building and say, “I made that.” Having employees, however, was torture. I liked having them in some ways, of course – I liked the guys and it made me happy to see them take care of their families with paychecks that I signed. That was very gratifying. But it wasn’t enough, and there are three reasons why:
#1: Making Payroll
My first problem was simply cash flow. I was solely responsible for having enough money in the bank every week, and that could be nerve-wracking, especially when customers weren’t paying their bills on time. It’s not fun to think that a family won’t be able to buy groceries if you can’t collect your invoices.
Still, that part didn’t cause me to give up on employees. It was hard, but so long as my employees were working, we were making money, so there was always something coming in at some point. Somehow, I was able to pull it off.
#2: Being Hated
Over time, some of my employees became jerks. This seemed to grow from envy and from stupid ideas about labor versus management. These guys decided that I was getting rich off of them, and demanded I pay them more – more than they deserved and more than the company could afford.
And the really nasty part was this: It was always the guys I had done the most for who hated me most. And as soon as I sat down with them and explained why I couldn’t pay them more, they started stealing from me.
I fired the thieves, of course, but these experiences really soured me on employees. I had not only given these guys a job, but I had legitimately felt good about helping to feed their families. In return, they hated me, called me names, and stole from me.
By itself, that was almost enough to make me swear off employing people, but not quite.
#3: The IRS
What really drove me over the edge was dealing with the government, and the IRS in particular. They were abominable.
I had to file forms with every payroll, and if anything on them was wrong, they penalized me – heavily. And if I paid them a single day late, they penalized me – heavily. And if they said I did something wrong – even if I didn’t – there was no way to change their verdict. Reason and evidence simply didn’t matter.
I eventually talked to a tax lawyer who explained the situation to me. He said:
Forget about fighting, Paul. There is no ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in tax court. You’re automatically guilty, and you have to try to prove yourself innocent… which is very hard and very expensive. Just pay them. I know you hate that, but you have no other choice. Fighting them would ruin you.
It wasn’t just the money that got me about this – it was that they were heartless tyrants. Having the facts on my side didn’t matter. Intelligent arguments didn’t matter. Either I paid what they demanded or they would hurt me worse.
In many ways, it wasn’t much different than the local gang of street thugs demanding protection money.
So, that’s why I can’t hire you: Having employees locked me into a single role in life, that of a despised slave. When I finally realized that, I walked away.
I was lucky that I had the ability to move into specialties and to thrive in difficult niches; other guys probably couldn’t have.
So…
What I really want you to know is this:
I’d like to help you. You deserve a chance at a decent job. I’d like to be the guy who gave it to you, but the system demands that I must live as a slave in order to do so. And I won’t do that.
I very much wish that things were different, and I feel sorry every time I drive by that I can’t hire you. But I would never ask anyone to live as a slave, and I won’t live that way myself.
I wish you well, and if life in these parts should ever pull back from the present reign of oppression, I hope to run into you. And on that day, I hope to either hire you or do business with you.
We would both have much to gain from it.
Paul Rosenberg
freemansperspective.com
“You’re born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you’re up in the rarefied atmosphere and you’ve forgotten what shit even looks like.”
“Welcome to the layer cake, son.”
I’ve spent time in and around the top layers, and I wasn’t impressed.
I want nothing to do with that cake.
Yes but by removing yourself from the system you simply become a layer in an ‘alternate’ micro system, that if applied to the macro would have the same consequences as the system you presently deride.
LC, I don’t think the layer model is inescapable, and I would separate from it a second or third time if necessary. Beside, the new model I am engaged in features radical decentralization: Home schooling, crypto-currencies, silver, gold, etc.
Centralization and hierarchy are archaic and barbaric modes of organization. It’s time to leave them behind, and I’m doing my best to keep them out of my life.
Peace.
Layer cake shaped in the form of a pyramid. We either have to remove the base or smash the top, maybe both. No matter how, the rectangles need to be scattered as my shoulders are tired…
My experiences were not so bad. In the latter 1960’s, I had a small manufacturing company. Yes, I recall going to the bank to meet payrolls. And I remember having pretty reasonable and productive employees. But I don’t recall getting hasseled by the IRS; maybe my company was small enough to slide through the cracks.
In any event, I now have a nice little (essentially) one person business. No big deal, but it keeps body and soul together. I get some work done (sub-contractor) and have the paper work done by an independent accountant.
It is possible that I’ll run into some “speed bumps” (government interference), but so far so good.
I love the one-person business model, and you may never have any serious problem… such businesses seem very low on the “find money here” list.
Got my own little following of customers myself, most for over a decade. Process control and automation services does ok by me as a one man show. Techno-handyman, that’s what I give as my job title.
In 2010, the commissioner made it his point to go after small companies in the grand scheme of things that people making $250.000. They came of my company that was not earning anything and paralyzed everything, I am now pulling back from the reign of oppression……America is no longer what it was 25 years ago…..and I simply say, hello I must be going…….
I used to hire and fire folks, too.
It’s part of being a responsible person. I get that. I’ve been there.
But if I have a coin in my pocket and the man under the bridge reaches out for help, I give whatever I have. That’s how I was taught – it’s an abundant universe and anything I give freely will be replaced.
Having actually eaten out of trash cans I know this to be true.
The reality is that “governments” don’t work. Their mouthpieces claim to have the downtrodden in mind, but you and I both know that they don’t care.
Only People help people. Only people are capable of helping people. The government? That’s a ruse to buy your votes. How’s the return on that workin’ out for ya?
Best to get out while you can. The world is full of nations with booming economies and virtually no government debt. You just won’t find them in the so-called 1st World economies.
Learn Spanish, move to Chile, It’s the only bright spot in the Western hemisphere.
The Boot-Strap Expat
http://thebootstrapexpat.com/
Yes only people help people. Government is nothing more than people, it is not as if guberment is a living organism, unique. With that being said, the guberment people and those who they supposedly represent must be a bunch of jerkaholics.
Institutionalized theft that takes from everybody and gives to the top. It is a pyramid but nothing trickles down, it is hoisted up, err, we are forced to push it up to them, hoisting would imply they work. Just enough is given to the bottom so that the support stays in place. I am sick of hearing about upsetting job creators, organizers and producers. These special people certainly do not reside at the top of the pyramid. The top is the where the most conniving, sinister folk reside…
Reading this freaks me out…I thought it was only me, especially #2.
I’ve gone from 14 employees to just 1 and myself. I make more money and I’m happier.
I am that homeless man, and don’t feel bad, I don’t want to be your employee. I believe in a right to contract, but I don’t want to deal with the BS any more than you do. I was tired of being a slave too. If you have something, they can and will take it. If you have nothing, you start to see freedom. If anything, I should be apologizing to you, because I have nothing to lose and have thus discovered a renewed sense of freedom and defiance.
So you have won the battle but lost the war. A work strike should be temporary rather than permanent. When faced with difficult questions, I ask myself, what if all 7 Billion humans did this? This is how I find answers to some of my toughest questions. IF 7B humans strike temporarily, we would break the system and be able to rewrite some of the terms, however if 7B strike indefinitely, mankind would die. Period. End of story.
Joch C. Your logic is flawed. Horribly. Herb is winning the war within himself. Art of war?
7 Billion would NOT do that… not even close. Many people who are unemployed, on benefits, (or homeless) would work if they had the right opportunity, and a little help to get into a ‘healthy’ lifestyle. And people who have the financial stability understand the benefits of steady work. As a homeless person, you have options with agencies who will put you on the top of the waiting list for a place to live. Once getting that place to live, people will help you get benefits… and perhaps counselling. Once you got a few months past those things improving your life, you could also get help getting some life skills, have friends, enjoy things that used to give you pleasure, using a computer, maybe even landing a job. The thing about being homeless, is that you might fool yourself into believing that you have it made, You don’t have to listen to, or live up to anyone else’s standards. Well, those standards would improve your life immensely. All you have to do is learn some basic things about giving and taking with a little grace. BTW, how do you think you’re not being a ‘slave’ when you probably beg for change, or in one way or another live off the generosity of others?
Nobody said 7B would ever do anything. The point is, before you do anything, ask yourself, what if everybody did this?
The war within himself? You say that as if man was created to not create. I on the other hand feel best when creating. The part I do not like is when middle men, tax men and other takers, steal what I create.
point is simple. I get what Herb is saying, he is on strike and feels better but there is a much bigger problem on the horizon. If everybody did as Herb, Herb would not have a bridge to sleep under. You see?
You know what? The sad thing is that it wouldn’t break the system. The system doesn’t really need “the rest of us” anymore. The elites have concluded that they have many many more “useless eaters” than they need, which is why so many are being mercilessly spit out.
Somebody has to serve their food and wipe their arce…
“mankind would die”? lol oh because it isn’t like mankind could live off the land, hunt, and fish etc….. a lot of people may die from that scenario but not all mankind
He said he does not work, therefore he scrounges. IF 7B people did not work, there would be nothing to scrounge. So even if mankind lived off the land, as you say, this would require work. I am an extensive camper, I can tell you, living off the land sucks. And I am spoiled as I have a tent and gear that had nothing to do with living off the land. Most people would simply self destruct if forced to “rough it” Come on man, indoor plumbing is awesome.
Don’t hate material goods and capital formation, instead hate the middlemen, liars, cheaters, thieves, money changers and government enablers…
Sounds a little whiny to me.
By the way, my blog is here:
http://www.thoughtsandrantings.com
Hi ThiAmeri,
I visited your blog. Neither your blog, nor your response, answered the question from Partick Chkoreff. What is your answer?
Your blog has a lot of advertising and not a lot of information. It also seems very worldly, seeing how you claim to be a Christian. You also claim to be an American nationalist and a paleconservative and a Americanist. I think you are making God jealous by pledging allegiance to so many false idols. Think about it…
It sounds very matter-of-fact to me. I would like to hear about your own experience with hiring employees, so I can understand why you’ve had a better time with it than Paul.
The small business is the backbone of America. You provide an excellent product, customer service and you contribute to your local community. You have integrity and pay your bills. In steps the government from the local to the federal. They want a piece of the “action”. The rules, paperwork and additional costs of being a business owner erode your profits. Your company fails. Your employees lose. Your family loses. The community loses. The government… well, it thrives. Those at the top of the pyramid could care less and the cycle of destruction goes on. What can be done?
the government may thrive in the short term, because “they” can print money, but we will all lose in the long term.
Government today might be considered a “parasite”. A parasite attaches itself to you, bleeds you to provide its own nourishment while doing nothing beneficial for you in most cases. As for “services” such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, these are all simply the extraction (by force if necessary) of money from one person to another. What isn’t understood that the same amount of money extracted from you by the government to provide these “benefits” would earn much more if properly invested. Those curious can check out the offering by Vanguard of index funds. The return on investment is shown both for the previous decade and from when the fund was started. Given a mix of stock and bond funds, the return appears to be at least 5%, which means a doubling in value every 14 years according to “the rule of 70”.
Thank you Paul for sharing as much as you do!
I’m new to the business world. When I come across a post like this it reminds me of entrepreneur books like “100$ start-up”. Can one have a successful satisfying small business in American today? Are those entrepreneur books just hype or luck?
Most homeless people are that way because they want to be, plain and simple, yeah sure there may be .0001% of them who are “down on their luck” (like my uncle who was mugged in 1970 and got brain damage as a result) and I sympathize with them of course, but for the most part they’re homeless because they refuse to work. That’s fine it’s their choice, but when I see them walking into the HHS building and collecting welfare, I lose any sympathy for them that I had.
Okay, they refuse to work, but why?
Are homeless smarter than most of us, keen enough to realize most people do not get to keep much of what they earn?
Maybe we are the stupid ones, fueling socialism, stuck on a hamster wheel?
who is John Galt? I only wish I had his resources…then Id be happy to drop-out.
Yes Ayn was a little twisted. There is a chance someday, enough people will stop trying to feed themselves and their family, but until this happens, the world keeps turning and us slaves keep working…
I’m not sure who’s smarter, I’m just tired of paying for their leisure.
I am not sure whose leisure you are sick of paying for? Last time I checked, bureaucrats are the ones taking all the vacations, not the homeless man. Hedge Fund managers that only exist because of Federal Reserve caused fluctuations, are the ones skiing in the Swiss Alps. Media, all of them, regardless of uniform, has us so divided, we are impotent. We are so busy hating each other and pointing fingers, we neglect the real takers. I hate to say it but I am slowly becoming a hybrid occupier, accept that I do not think more state will solve any problems. Occupiers and others are right in thinking something is wrong, they just need to embrace the truly free market rather than more state…
Well we were talking about homeless people so I’m not sure why there’s confusion on your part. A homeless person in the United States, is living in the lap of luxury compared to anywhere else, considering the fact that there’s a taxpayer funded shelter on every city block, taxpayer funded medical care, taxpayer funded cafeterias, taxpayer funded libraries that they use as their own personal meeting halls, do I need to elaborate further? I agree with your assessment of bureaucrats and media, but this article was about homeless people and that’s what my comment was directed toward.
Generally, I believe people need a home/address to get ‘welfare’ (which is a loose term, and doesn’t relate to a particular service in Canada.)
That’s not true, all that needs to be determined is that they need “assistance” and it can be sent to a PO Box, a half way house, a shelter. Being a citizen isn’t even a requirement obviously since in San Ysidro, CA I see Baja California license plates lined up around the block at HHS at the beginning of the month.
You’re talking about the U.S…. believe it or not things in Canada may be done differently.
Of course I’m talking about the United States, that’s where I live.
Well said. I thought I was reading my own life story. I never missed a payroll, but I can tell you, I missed many myself. Buying groceries on a credit card because I had no cash. I have instilled in my teenage son that your boss owes you nothing. You owe him an honest hard day’s work and for that, he will pay you the going rate for that job. If you feel you are worth more, than do something about it. My fear is that we are slowly (maybe not so slowly) losing the work ethic that made this country great.
I used to have employees and had similar experiences. I’m a one-man shop now.
I owned a business and this article is EXACTLY spot on what happened two me EXACTLY!! Dealing with the armed thugs at the IRS has me to the point where my only plan if ever told I have a terminal illness is to kill as many IRS employees as possible before I die
Somebody at the ol’ NSA Loyalty Monitoring Center is making a note right about now…
yeah, and wouldn’t it freak out the ministry of loyalty if the monitored tens of thousands of posts just like it
Watch out, with Oooga Booga Care coming into effect they will KNOW WHEN THAT IS. I recommend going straight from the doc’s office to your primary target post haste.
thanks sounds like a plan
It is impossible to win a dispute with the IRS even if you can prove that the money was actually paid in. Cancelled checks apparently are not “proof” to the IRS or are bank statements either. Problem came about because of a change in my business “taxpayer number”. The money was sent in (I had proof), but to the “wrong account” according to the IRS. Apparently their record keeping leaves something to be desired…
I had a design company serving the construction industry, almost an all-graduate workforce and recognise every work of this article, I took risks on people, gave them chances and was rewarded with hatred and theft. After it was all over I was driving along a remote Scottish glen and a piece on the radio discussed the Israelites fleeing Egyptian slavery; I realised that my experience had slowly morphed into slavery and now I was free.
I will never be a slave again
Alas, “employers” have done it to themselves. About 20 years ago, I saw the writing on the wall and, wanting to shake off my “employee” slave chains, too, I quit my job and went about offering my time an labor on a contract basis. Silly me, I thought small businesses would jump at the idea of not having to pay taxes, unemployment, worker’s comp, etc. ad nauseaum on me. All they would have to pay is the “take home’ rate they paid their other entry-level employees and save a significant amount of money on me. But, hell no, they all said. I’d have to be a regular slave or move on. Suckers. It was hard enough on them 20 years ago, but now with Obamacare about to kill them, they probably wish they had at least taken my offer a little more seriously back then.
Well, 20 years later, with a lot of ups and downs in between, I do now work for a contractor whose entire workforce are contractors, from me, the office manager, to the guys who get the work done, to the sales team. I’m contemplating starting a small business to manufacture and sell on line a product idea. Should I do that, I will never have employees, no matter how many people work for me. If the IRS wants to throw some intimidation at me, they had better think twice. I actually understand the fact that cooperation with the income tax system is voluntary and I’m not afraid to educate the IRS on the matter.
” I actually understand the fact that cooperation with the income tax system is voluntary and I’m not afraid to educate the IRS on the matter.” Irwin Schiff has been waiting for you to save him, get busy.
I love Irwin Schiff. He, among many, helped educate me 20 years ago. The problem I see with those who fight the IRS for years and years is that they are trying to straddle the fence, have their cake and eat it, too. They want to continue to have a driver’s license, bank account, credit cards, voter registration, social security account and all those things that require you to profess yourself as a 14th Amendment US Citizen in order to have them. So, on the one hand, they claim a right to be free and keep their earnings, while on the other they embrace all the badges of slavery. Why? Because it is extraordinarily difficult to be one of about a dozen people who truly revoked all of those contracts with the feral government, especially if you have a family depending on you, not to mention unwilling to allow you to escape your slavery. They like to say they have no choice. But you all DO have a choice. You may not LIKE the choice, but you have one.
Until a more significant number of men, and I do mean MALES, take the steep and difficult road out, there will be no liberty. If 10 thousand men in one state revoked their driver’s licenses, you would see all manner of changes after the first 100 or so spend some time in jail. After that, driver’s licenses for private people in their private vehicles would be known to be voluntary, as they already are. Just 10K in one state.
Any takers?
There are millions of empty cells waiting for you. All the things you suggest are guaranteed incarceration. Not a matter of if but when…
You are already incarcerated. At least a jail cell is an honest and forthright form of incarceration. Besides, only the first round of brave souls will/have been jailed for standing on the truth. If more males would make the temporary sacrifice needed to show the slave masters that they will not cooperate in the scam and do intend to live free, then fewer and fewer would suffer, and more and more of us would become free. Read up on martyrs and Christianity some time. You’ll see what I mean.
BDTR, if you think income tax is voluntary, try not paying it. The IRS will complete your education. Good luck with than.
Cranky Steven, I already do not pay the income tax. I have not paid since 1994. I earn money. I’ve not been to prison. I’ve not been charged, tried or even looked at twice. Who got schooled, now?
P.S: Have you ever heard of Joe Banister? Do a search sometime.
The IRS “frowns” on these sort of “deals”, as do state governments. Mainly because of in the case of state governments the “private contractors” as individuals are not paying into the unemployment insurance system. Then there is the issue of workman’s comp. Government apparently much prefers to have employers paying into the “system” as it is easier to collect its “danegeld” from employers instead of private individual contractors…
For years I wanted my own software company. I had the product, the patent, the idea, and the experience in my industry. That last one was the problem. I know how what startups are like. I don’t want to be in meetings all day with investors, and I especially don’t want to deal with all of the taxes and regulations. Even with just me, the IRS is saying I owe thousands in penalties ($195 per month plus interest) on the years I made $0 because I didn’t pay someone $500 to file a Schedule K with a $0 on it. You must live in fear of getting a letter from them. There is no rhyme or reason except continued servitude for all.
I can relate to this story. I always dreamed of owning my own business. When I got out of college I became a bookkeeper for a successful and later unsuccessful restaurant in NYC. The employee’s hated the management. The help made 6 figure salaries(even the busboys) and constantly complained of being overworked. I understand that its a physical job and they put in the hours, so they were grumbling. The waiters were making in excess of 200K working 12 hours. These guys were mostly foreigners, with English as their 2nd language, and without any higher education. I would meet these guys, many years later working for lesser successful places and they would talk that that restaurant were the good ole days (eyes rolling)!!
The part about the IRS in my situation, was more than just the IRS. We the fire dept scamming us with fines, building maintenance scamming for bogus repairs, the mob wanting to collect a sum of cash every month, the list goes on. Everyone had their hands in your pockets.
I was a bookkeeper for about 10 years. Working for a restaurant that has a negative cash flow made life even more difficult. Pay the employees or pay the rent? HMMMMM Then the IRS or Gov’t would really descend upon you. Fines, fines, fines.
My final analysis of doing this for a living was that it takes deep pockets to run a business. The business system in this country is swayed unfairly towards big business. Only a big business has the funds to weather the storms that businesses have to deal with.
More and more proving the “No good deed goes unpunished.” thought.
That is true hopelessness, which is a result of focus on oneself more than belief in a God that sees what you do in private.
As for me and my house, we will follow the lord.
Among those who offer valuable counsel, in my experience the churches which you look to, have been some of the most manipulative and useless. They say “always follow the government unless to do so is in violation of the word of God” which is so mind-bogglingly vague as a proposition. The church still wants their 10%, I even have heard a particularly greedy prosperity preacher say you must pay 10% of your gross income! “You can’t rob God” without the devil punishing you, yeah right! If people actually tried to interact with other citizens as human beings and actually suffered for righteousness sake they might actually improve society, and I include tax and government workers who can be quite intimidating! A dirty little reality is that the government usually acts at the behest of monopolistic businesses to squash the smaller, less-connected businesses.
Hi Thomas,
What the church says and what God says via the Bible are more often than not, not the same. Todays church has sold out to the tax exemption and lost its voice due to the 1954 Johnson amendment.
Clearly Jesus was born in rebellion to government and died in rebellion to government. Romans 13 places severe limits on government, Do nothing other than punish evil and commended goodness. If your government is doing something other than this, it is not government or God ordained. The worshippers of government have twisted Romans 13 to mean a free pass for government…
This article is so lacking in rigor and so full of unhelpful stereotypes like much of libertarian rhetoric these days. Many self-employed people pay workers in cash and bypass the ssi system and completely avoid the theoretical tax arguments, there are plenty ways to do this that are not publicized, it all depends on what type of business you are running. I used to hire workers to do landscaping and tree work on a day labor basis and it really never mattered to me whether the guy was an ex-con, homeless, etc., as long as he put in a good day’s work. I paid cash at the end of the day, usually $100 plus, and that was 10 plus years ago. The tax and government people do not care. Probably the only jerks who care are the incompetent soccer moms, Republican and Democratic fascists and meddlers. And they can be the worst to work for, chiseling you as their husbands make thousands a day in many cases with insider trading, corporate “free trade” machinations. They would never allow their suburban kids to do physical work for a living though it is the healthiest work there is; sports and workouts at the gym are about the only way these white collar people break a sweat. The tax people are no threat in most cases, that is really a huge exaggeration, there are plenty of ways to skin that cat. The only businesses that get in trouble are large ones with trouble makers as employees.
You got it. Libertarians are all about rhetoric and “winning the argument”. Without craving to be part of the system and having something to say about it they would be nowhere. They are not embedded in the Matrix. The Matrix is embedded in them and their (sorry, little) academic minds.
No, You and Little Thomas are thriving in a system designed by conniving, deviant, sociopaths to reward conniving, deviant, sociopaths.
Joch, why don’t you get a job? Why do you have to pick fights and call names here? We’re trying to be part of the solution not the problem.
Here is what YOU said Thomas. “This article is so lacking in rigor and so full of unhelpful stereotypes like much of libertarian rhetoric these days. Many self-employed people pay workers in cash and bypass the ssi system and completely avoid the theoretical tax arguments, there are plenty ways to do this that are not publicized, it all depends on what type of business you are running.”
You were calling names and picking fights and you were not part of the solutions. You only suggestion was to skirt the regime and live like a fugitive. If your conscience allows you to do so, good for you. Some of us prefer to get a good nights sleep and the involves following the law. The problem is the law, or too many of them. Skirting them does not cut it, therefore ideological libertarian think tanks…
Sounds like you are stereotyping Libertarians on your limited knowledge of them.
“Tax and government people do not care”. Oh they care all right!!!
So the guy who wrote this, did everything legit. Your conclusion is to just be shady, run things illegally, and they will leave you alone?
These are the reasons why only suckers pay taxes and keep books.
The best way to make money is to steal. Steal by scamming programs, steal by fraud, steal by phony insurance claims.
Americans who work or who try to are victims. Do as all of our “new” neighbors do, get two or three Social Security numbers, pay a citizen to marry you for a Green Card, get Free Healthcare, Free housing, Free EBT cards and get pushed to the head of the line for government approved jobs – this is the “New” Freedom in America – but it is not designed for US Citizens nor anyone wanting to work.
It a system designed to turn everyone into criminals, but which rewards the most criminal.
Yes the system does pay criminals and punish honest people. My Pastor, this past Veterans day, was gushing about how nobody in America is persecuted, therefore we should lick boots.
Every honest American is persecuted daily. I stopped attending that church and every church, they are all tax exempt arms of the state…
The author could be writing about my own experience. I used to have 24 employees, two companies and multiple customers.
I cannot count the number of times that one of my employees would make snide remarks to the foreman or manager about how I was “using them” to get rich or, not being fair. I cannot count the amount of times that things went missing. I cannot count the amount of times that I was treated like a never-ending teat to be sucked raw. I instituted bonus programs, gave out generous Christmas and birthday bonuses, formatted a profit sharing plan, was liberal with giving time off when needed. Always said “family first” whenever one of my staff needed a personal day off. Used to give everyone an additional fully paid extra week off (on top of holidays, vacation days) for the Christmas season.
I had thefts, bad attitudes (not everyone), was taken advantage of.
I mostly have avoided too much government intervention, since all of my customers pay via either credit card or check and since there is no cash, it all gets reported and taxes are paid on everything.
I did leave California though, since the state government was a complete pain in the butt.
So, now….I have one company, two staff members (good guys who are hard working and happy), have automated as many tasks as I can (eCommerce website, export of invoices to accounting software). I use outside vendors for ALL services that used to be in house.
I got rid of my CNC machine centers, fabrication tooling, second operation part deburring and only have light assembly now.
I am just tired of not being able to simply create, grow, provide a good service and product to my customers. By the way, I am an inventor with 22 patents.
I co-founded a new company 3 years ago. This one has NO EMPLOYEES. Within five years, I shall sell this one I have now and work the new one. All with the added benefit of generating a nice seven figures annually. And this new company relies completely upon outsourced services and affiliates.
yep; gotta appease the predators. As least so long as the seed corn (and misplaced faith) of civilization lasts:
http://www.nazisociopaths.org/modules/article/view.article.php/c1/32
walk away.There is no reasoning with, nor appeasing them.
I was actually thinking of starting a business. I am disabled and would have to have employees since I am unable to do the physical work required. This article is going to make me dig a lot deeper to see if it is worth it to do something I had dreamed of doing all of my life. I may pass and just keep on keeping on, unless I can contract everything out so I don’t have to be involved in the record keeping and problems with the IRS.
We need to go back to when everyone worked hard, bosses really were concerned with employees, and the IRS was not an issue. Only big thing in what I said that needs to go is the IRS. Abolish them, go to a national sales tax on everything but staple foods. Soda, chips etc are not a staple and should be taxed, I am talking bread, meat, vegetables, spices and baking supplies… things used to prepare real food and not the prepackaged crap that will kill you.
Does everyone realize that there was a time when there was… no IRS? There was a time when there was no income tax, no business tax based on business income? There was a day when there were no slaves?