If that is directed at me, I never said that regulation, possible regulation, yada, yada, was a cause for business slow-down. I suggested it, along with the unknown nature of promised new taxation and government mandates, as a reason that businesses weren't hiring new employees.Originally Posted by Lainey
If that wasn't clear, I apologize.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
Lainey, do you actually know anyone who owns a small business? I do - am married to one and the reality is quite different than the article you linked. This is a firm that typically employs 35 to 40 people, they have significantly downsized...This is a direct result of the Obama economy and threat of Obama care.
Bravo! Good quote!
Here's what my favorite blogger had to say this morning:
Occupy Everything
By James Howard Kunstler
on October 10, 2011 9:17 AM
' "Recession Officially Over," The New York Times' lead headline declared around 7 o'clock this morning. (Watch: they'll change it.) That was Part A. Part B said, "US Incomes Kept Falling." Welcome to What-The-F*** Nation. I suppose if you include the cost of things like the number of auto accident victims transported by EMT squads as part of your Gross Domestic Product such contradictions to reality are possible...
I dropped in on the Occupy Wall Street crowd down in Zuccotti Park last Thursday. It was like 1968 all over again, except there was no weed wafting on the breeze (another WTF?). The Boomer-owned-and-operated media was complaining about them all week. They were "coddled trust-funders" (an odd accusation made by people whose college enrollment status got them a draft deferment, back when college cost $500 a year). Then there was the persistent nagging over the "lack of an agenda," as if the US Department of Energy, or the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was doing a whole lot better.
This is the funniest part to me: that leaders of a nation incapable of constructing a coherent consensus about reality can accuse its youth of not having a clear program.... '
(Emphasis mine. Link to complete article: http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/10/occupy-everything.html)
How does one respond to a government that is chaotic and irrational? Certainly not with logic and a clear agenda written up in neat outline form. That would be like trying to reason with a drunk - a total waste of time and energy.
Catwoman, probably a good idea to stop calling it the "obama economy" since I so clearly demonstrated that the situation of the economy wasn't caused by him, but rather by forces that were rolling well before he got into office. blaming the wrong source doesn't help.
the fact that PPACA has already had an impact on your family business, I assume is based on perceptions and forecasting -- something that my business is really quite in the throws of as well. Except that I'm not subject to PPACA here.
Instead, I'm subject to three levels of tax: Goods and Services Tax -- which is 15% of everything; Income tax -- I'm currently not earning enough to pay this; and ACC levy, which is our health care system here.
Our biggest issue is whether or not the minimum wage will go up. Why?
Because of budgeting and forecasting.
See, for us, we are in the position where we need to hire 3 or so part-time people. The kind of work is part-time work, so they have to be part timers. I can't pay someone to do 8 solid hours of non-stop massage per day, plus, I don't have the demand for that at this point anyway. Most people tap out at 5 massages per day, and they tend to be 1.5 hrs apart, and we are going to pay them an hourly rate, starting with the base of minimum wage and then a profit sharing/percentage.
So, the issues facing us is what changes to the ACC levy process will impact us when we take on 1.5 employees, whether or not minimum wages goes up, and from there, what the situation is on us for income/GST taxes when we are paying them. We also know that we have to budget for holiday pay, and something else that I can't name off the top of my head because I just finished my invoicing and I'm a bit brain-fuzzed.
I'd like to hire 3 people part time (1.5 people, according to employment numbers), but if the minimum wages goes up and the ACC levy goes up, then I am restricted by my budget back down to 1 employee (or two part time people, as it were).
So, I can understand how if you are foreseeing that PPACA will impact your business financially such that you would have to cut employees, I do get it.
But that being said, living in a place with universal health care (and no insurance companies -- i mean, you can buy health insurance, but most people don't because you really don't need it here), I have to say that I'd rather pay the levies and higher (GST) taxes. Income tax is rather funny, in that you pay about 10% on the first 14k, and then 17.5% on the next part up to $48k, and then after that, you pay 30%. Here is an example you can check out online. I can't quite figure out if this is higher or lower than in the US or what, but there you go. I just did finish my invoicing, after all.
Anyway, We pay 15% tax on everything. We pay income tax. And we pay ACC levy.
And while the economy is still in a recession (as far as I understand it), it is overall a low-corruption government, has a large middle class that seems to be doing ok (everyone is pretty frugal here really), and is overall pretty stable. People aren't worried about getting sick. . . they take their kids to doctors -- or themselves -- as needed. And, it's all covered. That's just how it is here.
People here also travel, a lot, and have a lot of good parties, and seem to have enough expendable income on average that my business is doing well. It's a holistic health center, and we offer yoga, acupuncture (which is part of ACC treatment plans), physiotherapy, and several kinds of energy healing and massage. Since our business is growing (hence I need to hire people), it seems to me that we are overall doing well.
Though, arguably, this is not in the US.
But it points to how looking at what you have to spend and making arrangements for it is part of the equation. The government's policies will always change -- sometimes to your benefit and sometimes not -- and your best bet is to plan the best you can with the information that you have and how you feel about what is coming.
We are heading into elections here, too, which could mean a complete flip in the tax situation here. The labour party has an interesting platform about increasing minimum wage and cutting GST on essentials like power, fruits and veggies, and so on. Green has another plan where GST is cut in some places, and minimum wage stays the same, but the income tax cuts -- which apparently only positively effected the wealthiest and negatively affected the poorest -- would be increased again.
even so, i'm doing my planning to budget in order to hire people, because i need people to do the jobs and meet the demand.
Of course I know business owners. The article surveys many business owners, and because you differ with their conclusion puts you in the minority, not me.
and Zoebird is right - if you want to call this the "Obama economy" then you have to spell out what exactly happened after January 2009 that means he's responsible for job stagnation. "The threat of" and "what might happen" are non-starters.
No one in business has a crystal ball. Businesses hire when demand is there. If demand was there, any vague "what ifs" are irrelevant.
Last night police descended on one of the Occupy Boston camps. I saw some rather disturbing footage on Youtube where the cops were assaulting war veterans that were there with the protest. Cops throwing the American flag on the ground and trampling it. Seems fitting symbolism.
The problem making this argument is most of Obamas policies are Bush 2.0. The exception: the healthcare plan. Really what else? Taxes? The Bush tax cuts were kept AND more tax cuts were passed (payroll tax cuts)! Obamas so called "jobs bill" is half tax cuts (and a trade bill is snuck into it as well). That more taxes should be expected given the kind of deficits we are running well yes, eventually, there is that.
Regulations? What specifically? Clean air regulations were stopped. The Obama administration failed to do the kind of adequate regulation that would have prevented the gulf oil spill (this is documented). And we're going to have a pipeline running over the major aquefier for the middle of the country. That can not end well. Financial regulation? Well there was the bank regulatory bill which may have caused some chaos for sure (I saw it first hand and was working for a company that was almost put out of business by it - ironically the company I was working for was NOT a big bank and not in ANY WAY part of that which contributed to the financial crisis!), but AT THE SAME time this same regulation almost certainly fails to regulate the big banks enough, so that the exact same banking crisis can and probably will happen again. Glass Stegal is certainly nowhere to be seen.
Trees don't grow on money
If you have a link, could you share it? Thanks.
That's messed up. I went to see the local protestors. Very peaceful lot (and not a single one smelled bad). When they get cracked down on (and I think at the level to which the police state has progressed there is a chance they will be eventually), believe you are seeing tyrany. Still I hardly think the danger is great enough that a protest should be avoided if that's where you think you should be!
Trees don't grow on money
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