All:Any questions?
Shamelessly, I have stolen this brief essay from Casey Research's Casey's Daily Dispatch. It couldn't be more correct!!!
This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America
By Porter Stansberry
Saturday, August 21, 2010
I'd like to make you a business offer.
Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can't turn me down, as you'll come to understand in a moment...
Here's the deal. You're going to start a business or expand the one you've got now. It doesn't really matter what you do or what you're going to do. I'll partner with you no matter what business you're in – as long as it's legal.
But I can't give you any capital – you have to come up with that on your own. I won't give you any labor – that's definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you're allowed to operate your business. That's my role in the affair: to tell you what to do.
Now in return for my rules, I'm going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn't it? I think so. Of course, that's half of your profits.
You're also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you've got to cover my expenses for promulgating all of the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you're my partner. It's only "fair."
Now... after you've put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you've worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you'd like to cash out – to finally live the good life.
Whether or not this is "fair" – some people never can afford to retire – is a different argument. As your partner, I'm happy for you to sell whenever you'd like... because our agreement says, if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time.
I know... I know... you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all of the labor. That's all true. But I've done my part, too. I've collected 50% of the profits each year. And I've always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business.
Oh... and one more thing...
Even after you've sold the business and paid all of my fees... I'd recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you've been retired for years, when you die, you'll have to pay me 50% of whatever your estate is worth.
After all, I've got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don't think it's "fair" for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.
All in all, if you're a very successful entrepreneur... if you're one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public... you'll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life. Thanks so much.
I'm sure you'll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me... but it doesn't really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me – or cheat me on any of my fees or rules – I'll break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail.
That's how civil society is supposed to work, right? This is Amerika, isn't it?
That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs...
The Gunslinger
Zombie Killer, Vampire Hunter
I haven't seen it said so well since
ReplyDelete"I'm a gonna makea you an offer you canna refuse!"
At least Don Corleone had style... all we get is the likes of harry reid.
Sheesh.
This is all part of the unfolding scenario to end free enterprise and private property rights. At some point some Marxist will claim that the failure to create jobs is a failure of capitalism and free enterprise. When there are enough desperate unemployed people, how they became unemployed won't matter. The promise of a government created job in a government owned business run by government appointed cronies for the benefit of elitist politicians won't look that bad.
ReplyDeleteI caution anyone who claims that only the private sector can create wealth understand that the left is waiting to pounce on that claim. We have to acknowledge that government can create wealth, but does so very poorly and usually for the benefit of a select few. China has managed to "create" some very wealthy people and well-off politicians in partnerships based on "offers you cannot refuse".
Unfortunately, most Americans do not appreciate the risk of a business venture, the sweat equity needed to make it work and the destructive force of government coercion. Many see business success as just getting lucky and unfairly benefiting from that luck, very much the way they view buying a lottery ticket and winning the big one. This is their view of risk and reward.
The article is of course dead-on right about the obstacles and destructive power of government, but I think the response of many Americans never having started a business is to shrug their shoulders and say "so what, they knew what they were getting into."
Trubolotta said “We have to acknowledge that government can create wealth, but does so very poorly and usually for the benefit of a select few.”
ReplyDeleteEh... yeahhh... but... that is a myopic view – the common one, sure, the view that will be peddled on the news and swallowed by those who don’t look too closely... but myopic all the same (but yes, you are very correct, we do need to be aware that that sound byte IS what will be deployed against us).
And truly, Govt – proper government, one which upholds good Law, defends the property rights, and so all the rights, of its citizens, is a great source of value, and is second to none in making the creation of wealth possible... the explosion of wealth which followed the establishment of the U.S. is testament to that.
But that bears little to no relation to the govt we’ve got, only the one we’ve let slip away.
I’ve started a series of posts on my site beginning with Net Neutrality - Casting A Wide Regulatory Net To Neuter Us All, and cross posted at cross posted at 24th State, on Regulations what they actually ‘accomplish’ and destroy, and the politically successful businesses which thrive on them, vs proper wealth creation. Von Mises also identified what you mentioned here, his theory of government interventionism, the process of interfering in the system, and then ranting about the problems (caused by the previous interference) and imposing more controls, to ‘correct’ that problem, and so on, until the business is decrepit and corrupt and then the assassin steps in as the savior and says “Here I am to save the day!”.
Bastiat nailed it with the shallow and visible 'What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen' – what is seen is the stimulus business the window maker was given for replacing a broken window... what isn’t seen is that that was money that was used to catch back up to where things were before a vandal broke the window – wealth was sucked out of the economy, and money had to be spent to get things back to where they were, which is seen.
But what isn’t seen, is the tailor who wasn’t paid to produce a new pair of pants, the meal that wasn’t eaten at a local restaurant, the additional worker that wasn’t hired to help out on the weekends... real wealth that would have grown the local economy, but was lost to it, all because of the wealth that was destroyed by the vandal.
Makes zero difference whether the wealth was removed from the system by a vandal or a wealth sucking, information destroying, regulation.
What wealth that can be seen to be created by government stepping in ‘to help and do good!’, is always a fraction of the wealth that was destroyed by its ‘doing good’.
I'm a-gonna have to steal this, 'slinger.
ReplyDeleteI'll credit back to you, with the mention to where you got it, do you have a linky for where you got it?