DYNASTY HVY

A Letter From The Boss

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 landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

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 Cadillac outside. You’ve seen 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 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment 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 the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount 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 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, 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 my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden — the nice house, the Cadillac, 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 is 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 poor 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.

So, 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 sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about….

Signed,

Your boss

Kilgore Trout

I generally agree with most of your above post involving the cost to the nation's economy regarding the support of never ending entitlement programs.
However, I gotta take you to task for the above statement I've quoted from your lengthy letter.
Where are you going to go? If it's not the vitriolic latte drinkin' Bush-haters who moved to Canada, it's the cigar chompin' fat cats threatening to move to where? The Philippines, Thailand, Mexico?
The problem is, in my opinion, that plenty of corporate types have already done what you are thinking about- like starting 20 or so years ago.
A humongous portion of the U.S.'s good paying manufacturing, professional, and skilled labor jobs have gone with them.
We can argue about whether or not that's good for the U.S. in the long run, but what do you tell the people of Flint, MI? Or Pittsburgh? Or the A+P's who used to do heavy maintenance on US jets in the US? Work that is now done at overseas MRO's? What do you tell the skilled, well paid construction workers who have been superseded by illegals because we've failed to police our borders and immigration standards? Look around, the entire US economy's backbone has been broken by cheap labor, and unfair overseas trade policies benefiting few except, for yes, the "fat cats".
I don't believe that our new incoming administration has suddenly embraced the idea that the poor are the engine that drives our economy, only that many people in that incoming administration are cognizant of the damage done to the American middle and lower classes by some "globalization" policies and are trying to set up some damage control. I also believe that "the poor" are a convenient scapegoat for what truly ails the U.S. economy right now. That's what I think anyway. Take it for what it's worth.

Maybe you could set up an overseas housing swap deal with some ultra lefties depending on what administration policies you want to be in the U.S. to experience?

Did you write the above, DYNASTY HVY? If so, I wish you and your business the best. And I wish all Americans the best, too.

E Pluribus Unum!

DYNASTY HVY

I did not write this Kilgore and this piece was done a while ago.
I found it interesting so I went ahead and posted it that's all .

ryan1234

Kilgore... it is just my humble opinion... but a large portion of the failure of the U.S. economy is based on those ideals that capitalized on the gullible poor, in reference to sub primes, etc. The vicious circle of politicians bribing the poor for votes, futher creates a larger poorer class. While it may appear to some that I'm wearing my shiny new tin-foil hat... I would argue that cheap labor causes corporations to be able to sell products in a weaker market they wouldn't otherwise be able to do, and perhaps if the tax burden was decreased, less outsourcing would happen, and futhermore, foreign businesses might be attracted to the U.S. to create more jobs. The U.S. corporate tax burden is staggering, and many corporations have done the necessary to stay afloat. Many speak of fat cat "bonuses"... those "bonuses" (whether for an upper or middle class) are taxed around 40% alone (not to mention the corporate tax itself, payroll tax, etc)... those bonuses are a bonus for politicians to bribe the degenerate public with items that do little good. This is the circle Alexis de Tocqueville described as being an end to our Republic.
The letter seemed to be talking of a small business owner (i.e. provided 14 good paying jobs). Somewhere in between the irresponsible lower class and the greedy upper class, these people shoulder the burden of the U.S. Economy. This isn't to say there aren't ways around taxes for small business (i.e. S corp, LLC, LLP, etc).

Led Zep

Dynasty,
This was an excellent read, thank-you for posting it.

This is why I firmly believe the income tax (for both businesses and individuals) needs to be abolished. In it's place needs to be a national sales tax. Everyone would be pleasantly surprised how that would not only stimulate the economy, but probably balance the budget as well. It would create more jobs, a larger tax base, and everyone would have more money in their pocket books.

I honestly cannot blame a business owner for packing up and moving his/her business overseas. High costs and expenses forced a lot of companies to outsource or completely move jobs overseas, and higher taxes will eventually force the rest of the company to move too. Why rent an apartment for $1000.00 per month when you can rent the identical apartment for half that amount across the street?

Capitalism works best when it is left alone with no outside influences trying to engineer it.

Led Zep

I wouldn't argue that there are plenty of people to blame for this. I think the two parties primarily responsible for this are the government and individuals alike.

The government had placed an enormous amount of pressure on banks to give loans to people that may otherwise have not have qualified for them. This forced banks to lend money to people who probably couldn't afford to pay the money back.

At the same time, there were people who were carelessly using the system to purchase homes they couldn't afford and/or refinancing with irresponsible motives. Many people went with interest-only loans, sub-primes, and other non-fixed interest loans to purchase homes they had no business walking into in the first place. Others had used artificially high appraisal numbers to qualify for home equity loans to purchase large items such as cars, televisions, etc.. In other words, using their home as an ATM because their credit cards were maxed out.

Why were these requests getting approved by the banks? Because people were asleep at the wheel.

Bottom line? They are called "sound financial principles" for a reason. Don't spend more than you make and save until you can afford it.

BigFellor

The problem now seems to be a lack of failure.

I graduated high school in 99, and when I was "in" (kinda sounds like prison ....), I drove a $500 piece of **** Chevy Beretta. But it was mine. I paid for it, I fixed it, I paid the gas and insurance, etc.

Another guy's dad bought him a brand new Trans Am that year. Well, two of them actually, then an Explorer. Why three cars? Because he totaled both Trans Ams in the span of about 5 months.

I ran into this fellow a couple of months ago. Can you guess which one of us is still self sufficient?

My point is, some people simply don't learn unless they are aloud to fall flat on their faces. I stumbled. I made STUPID decisions and choices, ON MY OWN. The key is, I learned from them and did not repeat them. But those same people still learn things when they are propped up. All of these failing executives are learning now that they don't need to make sound business decisions, they dont need to be responsible and accountable to their employees/share holders/the public. Run the company straight into the ground, raping and pillaging all the way, then when you cant go any further, let the government step in to take care of you.

Same with home owners. Listen, certain people are simply not cut out to be home owners. Period. Some have no desire to do the work necessary to maintain a home, some are unable to take on the financial aspect of it, and a lot more are both.

When you work at McDonald's and make $30k a year, you probably dont have any business owning any house, let alone some of the houses that these people somehow "qualified" for. But again, no need to be responsible. The bank says you are "pre-approved" for $300,000?? You could just take $150,000 and get a nice place .... nah, take it all!! You could NOT buy the biggest HD TV you can find, and new $40k SUVs .... but your neighbor has them, so you have to get them too. Don't worry, the government (and through the force of government, I) will be there to bail you out.

It might sound cold, and cruel, and in this wussified culture, insensitive, but I really don't care. I'm tired of success in this country being punished, meanwhile rewarding FAILURE.

Don't think I'm leavng the scum bag politicians out of this. They are as much to blame (on BOTH sides) for pandering and basically buying votes through welfare programs. Unfortunately, as long as we let any idiot continue to vote and make decisions for the rest of us, this is what we get. I'm hungry, and this is getting long.

SunDog

*shrugs* who is john galt?

Pilotpip

Oddly enough many of these manufacturing jobs are moving to China, where the entire workforce is subsidized by the government.