Small Business Squashed…Again!
Well, I see the Supreme Court handed big corporations the golden spoon of political clout by striking down major parts of the McCain/Feingold campaign reform legislation. Now, big money has direct control over who does and who does not get elected.
Remember, it is all about the money, and since it takes millions of dollars to get elected to major office, it is obvious who will be controlling our government. And where does that leave Small Business?…guess!
With lobbyists from K-Street orchestrating the performances of Congress, and big business paying for the players, there is not much left for individuals and small businesses to say.
Sadly, the term “We the People” has become nothing more than fodder for political rhetoric to sooth the anger of the uninformed.
Business Funds for Veterans
Sadly, veteran owned businesses are at an all-time low. Fifteen years ago veterans owned around 20 percent of all small businesses, but today that number has dwindled to about 12 percent. Consequently, the U.S. Congress, through the SBA, has approved several programs to help veterans become entrepreneurs.
Here are three of the most popular:
- Patriot Express Pilot Loan—This program is for all veterans and active-duty military people, including their spouses. However, this is a SBA “guaranteed” loan, which means the loan is made through a bank—thus requiring that you have a good credit history. Vets can borrow up to $500,000 with 85 percent of their loan guaranteed by the SBA. And since it is an “Express” loan, you will know within one day if you are approved. For more information, call your local SBA office or visit http://www.sba.gov/vets
- Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan—This special loan is for the small business that has a key employee, or the owner, called up for active duty. The concept is to loan the business additional operating money to help it either get through the period of absence, or recover from the temporary loss of a key individual. You have a year after the return of the key employee to apply for the loan, or you can apply immediately upon the notice of call-up (a good idea if it is the business owner). For more information, call your local SBA office or visit http://www.sba.gov/vets
- Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative—This is not a loan program; it is a government-sponsored program that gives ten to 20 percent off franchise fees at almost 400 different franchising companies. This program works well for the vet who either has the additional money, or can raise it, to cover the remainder of the franchise fee, plus any operating capital requirements, and who prefers to work within the structured franchise model. For more information, visit http://www.vetfran.com
These are special programs set up to help veterans returning from active duty, or while on active duty, so don’t hesitate to take advantage of them if entrepreneurship is in your future.
China to Require Web Site Registration
China recently released regulations requiring the registration of all web sites before they can be seen in China. Beijing already blocks many sites thus creating a government “blacklist.” Not content with this form of censorship, the new system will create a “whitelist” of registered sites that will be available for viewing in China. So, if you want people in China to be able to view your web site, you will have to register it with the Chinese government—assuming they accept your site for registration.
Will these regulations actually be enforced? No one really knows, but government officials certainly have the will and the capability to do so. Right after the rioting in Xinjiang last July, they cut that region off from the outside world—including blocking both email and the Internet. This embargo is still in effect today.
Technically, it is simple to accomplish in China, because the central government controls China’s communications with the rest of the world and they can impose a Xinjiang-like shutdown on the whole of China by flipping a few switches.
Some speculate that President Hu Jintao’s long-running crackdown on human rights may include his intention to take China completely off the Internet.
Time will tell, but this makes the squabbles we have with our U.S. government pale in comparison. Kinda’ makes one glad not to live in China, doesn’t it?
NOTE: This information is a synopsis of a recent article in Forbes magazine, written by Gordon G. Chang
Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics–Update!
Good news! Since I wrote about this subject last week, the November numbers have been released by the government, and they indicate we only lost 11,000 jobs in November, while the unemployment rate dropped from 10.2% to 10.0%. I also read that the folks in Congress and the Administration loudly cheered the good news all around.
WAIT JUST A MINUTE—if we increased the number of unemployed by 11,000, how could the unemployment rate go DOWN?
Very simple—statistical manipulation. The unemployment rate fell because of the way the government conducts surveys of households to determine who was looking for work during the 4 weeks prior to the survey. From their surveys, it was determined that the “labor force” fell by 100,000 jobs for the third straight month, and the “participation rate” (the portion of the population that is employed, or looking for work) fell to the lowest level since the recession began.
Consequently, we did not bring the unemployment rate down by having fewer people unemployed…we did it by having fewer people looking for work during the survey’s prior 4-week period. In other words, When fewer people look for work, that is fewer people counted as unemployed…so naturally the unemployment rate would drop.
This is one of the problems with using statistics instead of real numbers to present absolute conclusions. Statisticians try to make us think whatever they want us to think—it’s called: “Spin.” You get the picture.
All things considered, I will stand by the numbers I presented in my last post, and say that I believe the real rate of unemployment is very close to 30% when including the “involuntary part-time” unemployed.
Yup—lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
Mark Twain popularized the old saying “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” When Twain wrote these words in his autobiographical book, he must have had the government in mind, because the government is, by far, the master of statistical manipulation.
Everyone knows that the “official” unemployment rate is now at 10.2% of the work force, or about 15.7 million workers. But, what we are not being told is how many people are actually unemployed but not being counted as unemployed because of some strange government arbitrary reason. Let’s look at the government’s own survey numbers:
- Government reported unemployed persons—15.7 Million.
- Persons marginally attached to the labor force and who wanted to work, were available to work, and had looked for work during the prior 12 months—but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the government survey, and therefore not counted—2.4 Million.
- Persons marginally attached to the labor force, but had not looked for work during the 4 weeks preceding the government survey for personal reasons (family responsibilities, school, etc.) and therefore not counted—1.6 Million.
- Discouraged workers who are no longer looking for work, and therefore not counted, because they believe there are no jobs available for them—808,000.
- In addition, there are those termed “involuntary part-time workers,” which means that these people have been laid off and are unemployed, but take a menial temporary part-time job just to feed their families, and therefore are not counted—9.3 Million.
Since these are government numbers, they are suspect, but they are all we have, so let’s look at some totals. If we only add up all the unemployed numbers above, we find 20.5 Million people unemployed—not 15.7 Million. Then when we add in the “involuntary part timers,” we get 29.8 Million people basically “unemployed.” This is nearly double the “official” number published by the government. There are likely many more that have dropped so far below the government’s radar they no longer get surveyed.
Government press releases and media pundits tell us the recession is over and recovery is in progress—so, where are the jobs? Small business has always pulled our fat out of the fire in past recessions, but they cannot do it this time, because of restrictive lending practices by banks, repressive government regulations, and the threat of government imposed higher operating costs, e.g., healthcare and higher taxes.
If you’re a small-business owner, you just might want to jot a note to your Congressional delegation and tell them that.
Yup—lies, damned lies, and statistics!
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.
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