Who’s not paying their fair share? According to Elizabeth Warren, those who build factories and create jobs – meaning those who create wealth. Quoting her…
“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.”
My question is: Who are “the rest of us” that Elizabeth Warren talks about? The top 1% pay 38% of income tax, the top 10% pay 70%, the bottom 50% pay 2.7%. Who’s not paying their fair share?
The small business owner, who can’t afford lobbyists to buy loopholes, works 60, 70 hours a week, creates jobs by hiring employees, and maybe makes 2, 3, 400 thousand a year and what happens? He/she pays 50% taxes in fed income, state income, state sales, sometimes city income tax and city sales tax, property tax, fees up the ying-yang, and for what? Continue reading .
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Here is my list of the top ten words that have been used and abused this year, in no particular order…
Transparency - a holdover going all the way back to the 2008 presidential election. Let’s see, how many bills were there that were written behind closed doors and weren’t read before passage? If you want transparency I guess you have to go to WikiLeaks.
Uncertainty - The Congress didn’t pass a budget, didn’t pass any appropriations bills and left America wondering about tax rates until two weeks before the end of the year. But hey, if you wait for zero uncertainty you never get anything done. The one thing that’s certain is that the national debt is going up, up, up.
Stimulus - We’ve had the $700 billion TARP, the 2009 $800 billion stimulus package, the new 2010 $800 billion dollar tax (stimulus) package and the over $2 trillion stimulus from the Fed and now $600 billion more in QE2. Any more stimulus will be using a government-certified cattle prod.
Social Justice – Why is it that anytime the word “social” is involved it means taking money from those who earned it and giving it to those who haven’t.
Bipartisan - Supposedly what America has been clamoring for. Not me. High spending, high borrowing conservatives are the enemy. Higher spending, higher borrowing liberals are the enemy. When they get together it just makes matters worse.
Human Rights – It used to be that you had the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Now it includes housing loans, health care, Internet access, cable TV and any other damn thing they can think of as long as someone else is paying for it.
Children and Grandchildren – As if they are the ones to whom we’re leaving our debt. I hate to tell you this, but it’s to the point where it’s us, too. The national debt is fast approaching $14 TRILLION! I predict that within the next 10 years no one will loan the government any more money. That means WE will have to start paying down the debt.
Greed - I won’t go so far, as in the movie Wall Street, to say ‘Greed is good’. But the liberals think that the free-market system is made up of nothing but greedy bastards who will throw their mothers under a bus for a dollar or two. President Obama actually said a doctor will not treat your kid’s sore throat so he can make more money cutting her tonsils out, that a doctor will not treat your diabetes so he can make more money amputating your feet. Our own damned President said that! He won’t be happy until the government determines what you are allowed to keep as profit, for the social good, of course.
Fair Share – The big question is who decides what’s “fair”? Almost 50% of workers pay no federal income tax. According to the latest figures from the IRS, the top 5% of earners, who make 35% of income, pay 59% of income tax. Is that fair? Not according to Democrats, who think the 5% should be paying even MORE. Whatever happened to “equal treatment before the law”?
Climate Change – It used to be “Global Warming” but everyone was freezing their asses off, so they changed it to “climate change”. That means if it rains too much it’s your fault. If there’s a drought it’s your fault. If it’s too hot it’s your fault. If it’s too cold it’s your fault. If there’s a hurricane it’s your fault. What to do? Take the one element that all life on earth is based on, that you create with every breath you take – carbon – and TAX IT. Problem solved!
Add your most overused and abused words to the comments section below….
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Just a quick security checklist for all small business offices and office computers…
- A hardware firewall (router) protecting all business computers – can be upgraded to a SMB security device for larger offices
- Encrypted Wi-Fi Network
- Employee Training
- Don’t download or install software
- Limit use of USB drives
- Don’t divulge passwords
The following should be on all business computers…
- Secure Profile Login
- Security Suite
- Should cover all types of malware and optionally include secure web browsing (software checks for known malware sites)
- Subscription valid and virus database updated daily
- Full computer scan at least weekly
- Updated Software
- A good tool for this is Secunia (http://secunia.com/)
- Data Backup System
The following should also be on all business laptops and smartphones although they can also be on office computers if susceptible to theft…
- File Encryption – like TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
- Password Software protecting all passwords with a master password – like LastPass (http://lastpass.com) or RoboForm (http://www.roboform.com/)
- Optional: LoJack (http://www.absolute.com/en/lojackforlaptops/) or other tracking software
- Optional: BIOS password
This is just a minimum. There are other options like disabling USB ports on employee computers, restricting employees to Limited User accounts, restricting Internet access, requiring re-login to Windows after a screensaver kicks in, etc.
How does your business stack up?.
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What do CEO’s want?
Simplicity
Dexterity
Customer Intimacy
Creativity
IBM has just completed a study of over 1500 CEO’s (free registration required to read) and other decision makers from around the world with special emphasis on a group IBM calls “standouts”.
Simplicity. I don’t need to tell you how fast things are changing these days. Many people are being overwhelmed by information and technology overload.
A cell phone user manual is now 3 or 4 times the size of the phone. What did someone come up with? A simple-to-use cell phone. That’s all it does. It has oversize numbers. It’s cheap. It sells!
The idea is to simplify things for both you and especially – the customer. Split-test an ad containing two different keywords – learn vs. easy - and see which one has a better response. Continue reading .
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In Micheal Gerber’s book The E-Myth Revisited
In our business I tend to be the manager/technician and my brother is the entrepreneur. He can’t look at much of anything without a business model popping up in his head.
So, are you cut out to be an entrepreneur?
Daniel Isenberg had a couple of posts in the Harvard Business Review on that very subject. The first – Should You Be An Entrepreneur? Take This Test has about 20 yes/no statements to determine your affinity to run a business. Statements like: Continue reading
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Most small business owners start out doing everything themselves. If you continue doing everything, your business can’t grow. That leaves two options: outsource or hire local employees.
The do-gooder government has made hiring local employees a real hassle. pay requirements, Equal Opportunity, payroll taxes, and the possibility of getting sued if you try and fire someone, just to name a few.
Your other option is outsourcing. It’s just like hiring the services of an independent contractor and in the new digital age that contractor can be local, national or international. Contractors can by hired for a specific project or for continuing operations.
Here are the advantages of outsourcing: Continue reading .
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