Obama the Dream-Sucker.
Yesterday, I listened to President Obama say these words.
Despite the progress we’ve made, many businesses are still skittish about hiring. Some are still digging themselves out of the losses they incurred over the past year. Many have figured out how to squeeze more productivity out of fewer workers. And that cost-cutting has become embedded in their operations and in their culture. That may result in good profits, but it’s not translating into hiring and so that’s the question that we have to ask ourselves today: How do we get businesses to start hiring again?
From the perspective of an employee of a small business, I can’t tell you how cynical and dream-crushing your perspective is, Mr. President.
I don’t see how you can claim, sir, that your administration has made any progress, economy-wise. Here in Michigan, I’ve been told there were some stimulus jobs in the 83rd congressional district, however, there are only 15 districts in Michigan, and they number 1 through 15.
I don’t like to talk about myself as much as you do, but I’d like to share some of my experience to let you know what types of things you all are doing “in Washington that are inhibiting” me.
I was hired 4 years ago to do a highly-skilled job that I had no idea how to do. With the help of my fellow co-workers, I learned. I learned fast. It wasn’t long before I could see some ways of doing things at work to make the job simpler, and more effective. I became supervisor and was involved in the hiring process. I helped hire people who had the same amount of knowledge of the job as I did when I got hired. I am now helping them to become as successful as I have been.
I can’t tell you how many jobs I’ve had before this that I literally stared at the clock, waiting to go home-where I never did anything either. That’s not living, that is only existing.
You see, when you learn something, a skill or a piece of knowledge, you feel good about yourself. You say to yourself, “Wow, I did that. Maybe there are more things I don’t yet know I can do.”
When you know you are able to do something that you never thought you could, you start to think that what you have been dreaming about doesn’t just happen to lucky people, you start to think that those people who have reached their dreams worked at it, and learned as much as they could to achieve them.
Those people become entrepreneurs, small businessmen and businesswomen.
Every person has a dream of what they really want to do. Some dreams become nothing because of the lack of work involved in making them come true. In Michigan, I believe the back-breaking amount of work involved in holding one’s dream is a direct result of the “inhibiting” effects of Michigan’s current administration and your administration.
Sir, why would any small business person hire someone to do nothing? After they worked so hard to take the chance to reach their dreams, why would they disrespect another human being in such a manner? Who would say to an applicant, “Look, don’t try to get ahead in life, sure I did it, but you can’t.” Not me, never ever.
It takes hard work to reach your dreams, it takes a non-productive existence to suck them away.
For the small business owner out there, I have a few questions that I’d like to ask you to answer in the form of a comment.
Questions:
What do you think are the major contributors, specifically, to the past year’s loss in sales and/or revenue?
Do you believe intrusive government is slowing your recovery? If so, how?
Do you believe the current administration has made progress in the economy?
Are you cutting costs on your workers? If so, how has that resulted in good profits?
When do you plan to hire, and, what needs to happen so you can hire again?
The Sault Ste Marie Tax Day Tea Party
I got up at 4 that morning to do my taxes. I waited because I knew I’d have to owe. I have friends who actually think that if you pay in taxes, you must either make a lot of money, or you’re doing it wrong. I fall in neither category. As I’ve said elsewhere on this blog, I am a seamstress, my husband is a mechanic and a union member.
Anyway, after I finished my taxes, I went to work, told everyone there how my taxes went, and reminded them I was leaving early going to the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.)
“Now, tell me why again?” asked my friend Doris.
I said, “After our leaders in Washington decided to spend trillions of dollars we don’t have, and consequently they will raise taxes for, I stand in protest.”
After we picked up the kids from school, we headed to the Post Office to mail my return. I owed 400 dollars more for the State of Michigan than last year, and since I like to use my money all year, rather than give it to the government biweekly, I owed over 2,000 dollars between the State and Federal. It is a good thing we have deer meat in the freezer yet, or else I would have to take on more debt to feed the family the next couple of months.
By all accounts, the number of patriots attending the Soo Tea Party reached up to and over 300. I was impressed. When we drove up, (my husband and children came with me) there seemed to be just a few people there. However, just as we were walking from our parking spot, it was like a pilgrimage of people coming from all directions, calmly walking to the open space by the river. Some were carrying signs, some with dogs, some with little ones. Once we got there, we were no longer afraid that we would be the only ones.
There were several speakers, one was Jim Jacobson, former policy analyst for the Reagan Administration who reminded us of Reagan’s quotable quotes about the size of government and how ineffective it is. The organizers did a great job of including a singer, who led us all in the Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America, and This Land Is Your Land, and two men from a local radio show had a great time on stage pointing out all the wasteful spending included in the stimulus package. The whole program lasted an hour which culminated with most of the attendees lining up to throw tea into the Saint Mary River.
When my husband and I talked with some of the attendees, we found out that our drive of 2 1/2 hours was not as far as some had come. There were people from Marquette, Boyne City, Detroit and Battle Creek, Cheboygan and Mackinaw City, Rogers City and Hawks. And no, none of us were paid to be there.
I have friends that do not understand that the money they get back at tax time isn’t money from the government, it is money they overpaid throughout the year. Consequently, they never see the big number they actually paid in. I’m serious! And one of them is a school teacher!
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan is a town of about 16,000 people and is the oldest city in the midwest. It is at the eastern edge of Michigan’s upper peninsula, and is connected to Canada via the International Bridge to it’s twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
