Biz Crusader

 

 

I just received a Groupon email letting me know that I could subscribe to Vogue for $8.  If I took advantage of this offer, I would receive in the mail 12 beautiful, full color issues of Vogue for just $8.  After Groupon takes their 50%, Vogue gets $4.

 

A few months back, I visited the web site of a notable advertising industry publication.  To subscribe, I would have to pay over $50 a year.  I passed.  Instead, I just decided to opt in to their email newsletter.  About a week ago, I started to receive the physical copy of the publication in the mail for free.  I didn’t pay a cent but they decided to start mailing them to me.

 

The magazine publishers are up against the wall.  The above scenarios are two small examples of a desperate industry.  If their content is so valuable, why I am I receiving them for free or practically for free?  Not only did I get it for free, I am receiving them at their cost.

 

The answer is simple.

 

It is more valuable for them to tout a larger subscriber base than to actually care about what their publications are being bought for.  It all funnels down to how many subscribers they can tout or claim to their potential advertisers.

 

This is not a new occurrence.  It has been happening for years but true desperation is rearing its ugly head for the first time.

 

Ladies and gentlemen.  PRINT IS DYING.

 

Don’t advertise in it.  Don’t pay for it.  Don’t invest in it.

 

If you are a magazine publisher, place ALL your resources towards digitization.  Accept reality.  Do you really believe that my 5 year old boy will buy a magazine for entertainment and information when he turns 18?

 

 

 

 

 

Well, here is a select list of what is included in the hotly debated Economic Stimulus Package.  This particular list is based on what the Republicans and the Democrats cannot agree on.

 

There is probably a good and valid reason for every one of these programs.  I believe the question is about timing and the purpose of this bill.  I thought the purpose was to create immediate and sustainable jobs.  What do you think of this list?

 

The one that jumped out at me was the $650 million to save those people still using old analog TVs.  I wonder how many new TVs you can buy with that money instead of buying the soon to be outdated digital converters?  Hmmmmm… I don’t remember anyone giving me a credit or money when my Beta Tape Player became obsolete.

 

I also love the 248 million to buy new furniture for the Department of Homeland Security.  What are they sitting on now?  Wait… Don’t answer that.

As you review this list, keep in mind that every dollar we spend now will be passed on to our children and grandchildren for generations to come.  We won’t even let our kids out the door without gloves or a hat.  And yet, we seem to be turning a blind-eye to the massive debt we are throwing squarely on their shoulders.  Did I mention that our lead creditors will be countries like China?

 

 

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.

• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs.

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.

• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

• $850 million for Amtrak.

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

 

 

 

Forgive me while I go on a tirade.

 

As you know, federal, state and local governments are suffering from major budget woes.  In CA, the franchise tax board (State IRS) is sending officials door-to-door to investigate if small retailers are properly collecting sales taxes.  Yes, they are going door-to-door to penalize small businesses and to levy heavy fines in cases where they might be operating as a retailer without a reseller permit.  Of course, they seem to be starting in lower income cities and in cities with a high-density of immigrants where tax codes might be difficult to understand or wade through.  The bright officials in CA have decided that this is a really good way to collect some revenues by kicking the small businesses while they are down.

 

When I learned of this, I was just outraged.

 

I really believe the “idiot level” of the federal, state and local governments have hit new heights in the past 6 months.  I don’t know any other group of people that can do more to stimulate an economy than small businesses.  I am referring to business with less than 25 employees—the real small businesses.  Every owner I know will almost immediately invest back in to their businesses whenever extra funds become available.  Small businesses are the “unsung heroes” holding this faltering economy together.  In essence, they are the duct tape. 

 

As idiots give other idiots billions of dollars of our tax money to companies on wall street and to the banks only to see them go on luxury retreats and to spend a million dollars to decorate an office, I am just astonished at the level of incompetence of our elected officials.  By the way, let’s not forget it’s these same companies who got us in to this mess in the first place.

 

In the meanwhile, small business owners work from dawn to dusk, 7 days a week, trying desperately to stay afloat.  They aren’t asking for bailouts.  They borrow from credit cards, ask their small staff to take pay cuts, cry quietly as they have to fire someone they consider family and their offices are decorated with a mix match of left-over furniture from luxurious places like Ikea and Staples.

 

 

Aside from the campaign trail video clips at some pancake restaurant, small businesses are pretty much being left alone to fend for themselves.  It’s kind of like how the smartest kid in the class gets the least attention from the teacher.  I think it’s fair to say that our officials have no idea what is going on in “real” small businesses.  We certainly shouldn’t be looking towards the SBA for help—the most useless organization in government.  For example, the news was all over the fact that the auto industry suffered a 50% decline in sales last month and mentioned the closure of auto dealerships across the country.  Of course this is bad news but the auto industry does not operate in a bubble.  What about the janitorial service who used to clean these local dealerships?  What about the diner next door who used to serve lunch to all of the employees of the dealership?  What about the guys who used to install the add-on stereo systems?  What’s happening to these businesses?

 

Instead of spending almost a trillion dollars in pork to grow the government, how about doing something meaningful and substantial for the “real” small businesses?

 

Here are some off-the-cuff ideas.

 

1)  Give 10,000,000 small businesses with less than 25 employees a pre-paid credit card for $10,000.  It would only be offered to businesses that have been around for at least 1 year and the card can only be used for a pre-approved list of vendors or product types (business expenditures). Cost = $100 Billion

 

2)  Loosen the rules for small businesses with less than 25 employees to be able to do business with the federal government.  These rules are cumbersome and have criteria many small businesses cannot clear like years in business, revenue minimums and initial filing costs.  Cost = Practically Nothing

 

3)  Offer no interest/unsecured loans to small businesses with less than 25 employees.  Have the businesses prove a track record of profitability.  Cost = Much less than the money we loaned to the auto industry and wall street

 

 

Do you have any good ideas?  Believe me… they need some good ideas.

 

 

 

In this year of 700 Billion Dollar bailouts, 85 Billion Dollar loans to companies that like to spend 500K on company retreats, and possible write-offs of loan amounts speculative homeowners willingly signed for because of greed and envy: I can’t help but fall back on my true to the core capitalistic principles.  The fact that our politicians are now taking the lead from financial market decisions made in Europe might have something to do with it as well.

 

Both Barrack Obama and John McCain have abandoned CAPITALISM for an election.  In a Capitalistic Society, some will fail and some will succeed based on decisions made by individuals and because of market conditions (Timing).  Government should implement policies to grow these principles and afterwards, GET OUT OF THE WAY.  Government should not serve as a deterrent to failure.  Without failure, success cannot exist.

 

Now, you know how I REALLY feel.  Would you expect a Biz Crusader to have any belief other than the above?

 

As an example…I would like to offer you a few quotes from another Biz Crusader.

 

 

“Property is the fruit of labor…property is desirable…is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”

 

“The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. . . .  Many independent men, in this assembly, doubtless a few years ago were hired laborers. . . .”