Small Business Regulations
Consider This!
$1.1 Trillion! That is the annual cost to Americans for businesses to comply with mandated government business regulations, according to the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. This is more cost per household than the cost of health insurance. Think about it.
Moreover, smaller businesses bear the brunt of these government regulations and pay 45% more per employee to comply with mandated regulations, than big businesses do.
Bear in mind that these numbers are before the new regulations coming out of Congress take effect, e.g. new health care insurance. So this cost will only continue to rise.
And we wonder why small business is not hiring people, and pulling us out of the recession like it has in the past.
Of course you do know, that businesses MUST pass ALL of these costs for government regulation on to the consumers of the goods and services they provide, in order to stay in business?
Question: Isn’t this a hidden tax on every consumer, just to pay for bureaucratic bloated programs dictated by the government?
The Art of Aging
In our youth-oriented society, aging is something to be avoided at all costs—or so we think. Yet, as Sam Cooke’s famous song says: “Change is Gonna Come”…and there is nothing any of us can do to stop, or slow it.
So, how are we going to handle this inevitable change in our lives? To answer that question, I thought we might take a look at Richard and Alice Matzkin—two highly acclaimed artists who recently wrote a book about getting older, titled “The Art of Aging.”
Here is a short video of Richard and Alice discussing their book and their experiences with the process of aging that were the inspiration for the book.
(email subscribers, view on my blog)
Richard and Alice have embraced the inevitable, and handled their fears by expressing them through their art. They have determined that old age is a time for living, rather than a time of fear and despair. Each of us also needs to face our fears of growing old. We need to embrace those fears, so we can diminish them through our own endeavors. Growing older is a time for celebrating life—the life we are living and have yet to live.
There is something each of us can do with the time we have left, whether it is producing great art, joining the Peace Corp, or doing anything in-between. Older people “know things”…they have wisdom…and it is a shame if society does not appreciate and take advantage of that.
One hundred Baby Boomers turn 60 every 18 minutes—how are they going to approach this phase of their lives? My suggestion is to begin with Richard and Alice’s book “The Art of Aging.”
Alice Matzkin has two paintings hanging in the permanent gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, and during the Clinton Administration, her portrait of Chelsea Clinton hung in the White House. She has achieved national recognition by the media, and has appeared on Oprah.
Richard has achieved national acclaim through numerous one-man shows. His work is also sought after for many collections throughout the United States
Who Controls Big Business?
Many folks have been criticizing the Boards of Directors of big companies for not controlling their CEOs, and for allowing their companies to get into serious financial trouble (among other things). Of course the board members are elected by the Shareholders, who essentially “own” the companies and who are responsible for electing the right people to oversee their ownership.
But, just who are these shareholders? I ran across an interesting statistic the other day that pretty well answers that question. In 1960, 92% of the stock of American companies was individually held by private citizens…everyday people who elected the Board of Directors of the companies they held stock in.
Today…75% of the stock of American companies is held by “institutions.” This includes mutual funds, pension funds, Wall Street funds, and “other” large block investors. It is the fund and plan administrators who pick and vote-in the directors—not the individual stock owners.
In addition, I recently read a review of a report, put out by the Zurich-based Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, which studied 24,877 stocks in 48 countries. This report determined that the “backbone” of each country’s financial market “…consisted of remarkably few shareholders.”
Here is what the report said about American companies: “…while each American company may link to many owners, …analysis found that the owners varied little from stock to stock, meaning that comparatively few hands are holding the reins of the entire market.”
So, it appears that big companies are controlled by other big companies. Is it any wonder that everyday private citizens have little say on how the world economy functions? Or even how our own stock ownership is handled, because we cannot compete with the massive blocks of stock under control of “other” big businesses.
This sounds a little incestuous to me—does it to you?
Representatives of the People?
Obtaining high political office today is quite a challenge—a challenge to raise enough money to buy the position, that is. The days of a common person from small-town-America rising through political chairs just on the basis of their honesty and ethical behavior are long gone. Today it takes excessive amounts of one major ingredient to win high political office—MONEY!
Most of us are still reeling from the report that Michael Bloomberg spent over $87 Million on his resent mayoral campaign, which is $157.45 per vote. That got me thinking about the impact of money on political office, and while researching, I ran into some interesting numbers in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine.
Newsweek published the public numbers for campaign costs for Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg, and 35 Senate campaigns run in 2008. You might find the following interesting:
|
NAME |
POSITION |
AMOUNT SPENT |
COST PER VOTE |
| Barack Obama |
President |
$760,369,688 |
11.37 |
| Michael Bloomberg |
N.Y.C. Mayor |
87,710,101 |
157.45 |
| SENATORS: |
|
|
|
| Mitch McConnell |
R-KY. |
21,306,296 |
22.54 |
| Al Franken |
D-MINN |
21,066,834 |
17.37 |
| John Cornyn |
R-TEXAS |
16,454,518 |
3.80 |
| Saxby Chambliss |
R-GA. |
15,692,294 |
12.85 |
| Mark Udall |
D-COLO. |
12,987,562 |
11.14 |
| Mark Warner |
D-VA. |
12,515,479 |
5.29 |
| John Kerry |
D-MASS. |
12,279,425 |
6.27 |
| Mary Landrieu |
D-LA. |
10,146,669 |
10.29 |
| Kay Hagan |
D-N.C. |
8,953,274 |
4.02 |
| Jeanne Shaheen |
D-N.H. |
8,208,542 |
22.87 |
| Max Baucus |
D-MONT. |
8,164,703 |
23.60 |
| Frank Lautenberg |
D-N.J. |
8,135,752 |
4.44 |
| Richard Durbin |
D-ILL. |
8,016,455 |
2.28 |
| Tom Udall |
D-N.M. |
7,841,889 |
15.77 |
| Susan Collins |
R-MAINE |
7,765,295 |
17.47 |
| Jeff Merkley |
D-ORE. |
6,501,315 |
7.96 |
| Pat Roberts |
R-KAN. |
6,297,288 |
8.84 |
| Roger Wicker |
R-MISS. |
6,160,116 |
9.49 |
| Carl Levin |
D-MICH. |
5,784,520 |
1.91 |
| James Inhofe |
R-OKLA. |
5,477,730 |
7.18 |
| Tom Harkin |
D-IOWA |
5,022,490 |
5.40 |
| Joe Biden |
D-DELA. |
4,907,245 |
19.06 |
| John D. Rockefeller IV |
D-W.VA. |
4,820,379 |
10.85 |
| Lamar Alexander |
R-TENN |
4,571,728 |
2.91 |
| Tim Johnson |
D-S.D. |
4,550,590 |
19.13 |
| Lindsey Graham |
R-S.C. |
4,463,619 |
4.21 |
| Mark Begich |
D-ALASKA |
4,443,284 |
29.48 |
| Mike Johanns |
R-NEB. |
3,781,316 |
8.45 |
| Jim Risch |
R-IDAHO |
3,573,256 |
9.66 |
| Mark Pryor |
D-ARK. |
3,284,632 |
4.12 |
| Jeff Sessions |
R-ALA |
3,240,151 |
2.49 |
| Jack Reed |
D-R.I. |
2,258,706 |
7.44 |
| Thad Cochran |
R-MISS. |
2,063,627 |
2.85 |
| John Barrasso |
R-WYO. |
1,981,441 |
11.11 |
| Michael Enzi |
R-WYO. |
1,247,841 |
6.77 |
|
|
____________ |
|
|
|
TOTAL |
$1,112,046,050 |
|
(Newsweek© research by Ian Yarett)
And the above total is just for the winners. Can you imagine what the actual amount spent would be if we added in McCain’s, Clinton’s, and all the other opponents of the above politicians? This is also just a sample of 35 offices out of many hundreds, especially if you include high state and big city positions. Obviously, several billions of dollars are spent annually (not only in election years) just to get into political office.
So, where does that money come from? Well, a small amount comes from American citizens. Another dab comes from small businesses, and this usually goes directly to the politician. But, the bulk of the money comes from big business, and winds its way through various political action committees and other means of circumventing campaign contribution laws.
The point here is that these enormous sums of campaign money can only come from wealthy people and big business. These are the same people who hire their minions on K Street to make sure the newly “supported” politicians act accordingly.
Is it any wonder that small business gets short shrift from their representatives? Small business cannot begin to compete with the mountains of money dished out by big business.
Sadly, this is not likely to change until we eliminate the “club” atmosphere in Washington—by instituting term limits, and passing actual campaign finance reform laws. Will that happen? Not likely, because those in the “club” like it the way it is…it will take a near revolution to bring this kind of change to pass.
But, maybe small business owners should keep this in mind the next time they get trampled on by legislation that favors only big business.
Unemployment and Opportunity
Well, unemployment rose above the 10 percent mark last month, and although the rate of lay-offs slowed, there is no sign that they will be halting anytime soon. Of course the politicos seem to take great pride in the fact that only 190,000 people lost their jobs last month. I am sure those 190,000 people take much comfort in that.
What do people do when they lose their jobs? I suppose many do nothing and just wait for their job to come back—if it ever does. Others decide to do something “special” with the new situation just forced on them.
Erik Proulx is one of the latter. In fact, he decided to make a documentary movie of what many people do when they become unemployed. The movie is titled, “Lemonade,” and will be released soon. The trailer can be viewed below.
(email subscribers view on my blog)
If the trailer is any indication, Lemonade should prove extremely interesting. Here’s what Erik had to say about his movie:
“…I hope even more that people walk away with an understanding of Lemonade’s intent: that losing your job can be devastating. But with the right perspective and a work ethic, it can also be the single greatest moment of your career.” —Erik Proulx
The point is that there are many things people could do—and for some, becoming unemployed provides the impetus they needed to follow their dreams.
As Erik said in a recent post “…Do something amazing!”
Have any of you ever been laid-off? What did you do when it happened?
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Stop and Smell the Roses—Part II
This is part 2 of my Stop and Smell the Roses article which I posted a few days ago. In today’s post, I present a little different view of the life of a small business owner.
There certainly are times when we would rather be immersed in our business than anywhere else…at that moment. The satisfaction of accomplishment…the move toward fulfillment of our dreams—these are things that “civilians” cannot relate to. But, there is another side to the life of an entrepreneur, and a recent article at Please Feed the Animals pretty well expresses some typical feelings of most small business owners from time to time.
Again, because this article is so on point, I am including it below, in its entirety:
The Yin And Yang Of It – By Kathryn Proulx
I just read an article in the Boston Globe Magazine by Kara Baskin about how nauseatingly happy everyone on Facebook is, or pretending to be. It’s one big “Look at how cute my puppy is! See how awesomely psyched we are!” The truth is, no one wants to put up the bad stuff. Who wants to put up a photo of yourself in the jeans that you can’t zip, a screaming child in a grocery cart, or a depressed face staring at the television?
Well, I’ll have a go. Yin and Yang or, in this case, Yang and Yin.
Yang: There is some amazing stuff happening for Erik and me. We are so close to something we can almost touch it. The blog is doing great, the movie is truly amazing, and the job site is coming together…The payoff for this will be a business that has been completely developed through self-financing, the generous time and work of friends, and the parents helping out twice. And I will never lose sight of those blessings.
Yin: This has been no all-day party in a bouncy castle. Erik is busting his ass. He works all day and night. The freelance to finance us means no breaks. None. But, did I mention no breaks? Weekends, holidays, 5 am, 2 am. And, if Erik has no breaks, then I have no breaks. I enjoy being a stay at home mom, but I am no Mother Teresa or Mary Poppins. I am neither a saint nor a work of fiction. I am real, I have bad days, I get upset.
Yang: We are lucky to have health insurance coverage.
Yin: Our health insurance cost is tragicomedy ridiculous. We get so little for what we pay. I filled an Rx the other day and the co-pay was $50.00, AND we already pay over a grand for our monthly premium. I almost cried at the pharmacy. I looked up at the check-out person and said “Really?” and he replied with a wince, “Yup.” And I mean really, If our society can’t figure out this healthcare thing…we are truly pathetic.
Yang: We are bootstrapping a business. There is a great deal of pride in knowing that we are actually doing this. When we look back, we will never have to say, “I wonder what would have happened if…”
Yin: There is the stress of no financial routine. I am a creature of habit and I love predictability. These days, it’s all sweating by the seat of our pants. No regular paycheck means the days tick off like a gruesome metronome until M-Day. Mortgage. Erik and I have this lip biting look we give each other – It’s a cross between I know we can do this, and holy shit.
Yang: There are actually humans out there who provide services and possess a soul. I believe Lenny our mechanic is the leading example. When we went to pay for our car brakes with plastic he said, “I don’t believe in credit cards, have run my business 30 years without ‘em. You can post date me a check if you need to.” And God Bless Lenny.
Yin: Credit Card companies suck. I had 3 credit cards that I had paid off years ago. They had a combined excellent available credit that I was saving for a rainy day. Well, when the clouds started rumbling – they yanked the cards with no notice. I stood in the kitchen with the letters just shaking my head. Like a slow motion movie scene, I dropped the letters to the table…I couldn’t believe it. All of those years of responsible payment, good credit standing, and when I really needed it…poof. Then we watched as the credit card company ghouls jacked the rates on our remaining cards to criminal levels.
I could keep going – But, I think that’s enough for now. Yin and Yang. Shadow and Light. We must have both – Neither can exist without the other. And, shadows and light are what truly make the picture interesting.
Well, there we have it. Yes, we can certainly be IN our businesses smelling our metaphorical roses while the “civilians” are playing…but there certainly is a darker side to entrepreneurship as well. Would we have it any other way? Not likely!
Good “smelling” to you all.
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