Someone took the time to write a short story of what happens to the entrepreneur when bureaucrats get involved.  When you destroy the gain for the entrepreneur to take risk, by definition: the entrepreneur will not take risk.  If the entrepreneur doesn’t take risk, by definition: the economy stagnates.  If the economy stagnates, by definition: jobs are lost.  If jobs are lost, by definition: our countries ability to compete in a global market is hampered.  You cannot help the back of the train by stopping the leaders at the front of the train.  All business, throughout history, has been accomplished through the leadership, business acumen, and risk calculations of the entrepreneur.  When you make the risk greater than the rewards, you have effectively stopped the train which hurts all the passengers on board.  In my opinion, only bureacrats in Washington, able bodied welfare recipients, or sluggards (Sorry for repeating myself) could think otherwise.  Enjoy the article and pass it on.  Please share examples from your own life where government intervention hindered a business from performing to its capacity.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward 

“The more people who own little businesses of their own, the safer our country will be, and the better off its cities and towns; for the people who have a stake in their country and their community are its best citizens” – John Hancock, American Founding Father

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this  country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a  back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I’m sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don’t see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn’t have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business – hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes.

Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70’s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself.  I unfortunately do not have that freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden – the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations  … You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I’ve made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t.

The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has its benefits but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes.  Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess  what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of  my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero. Nada.  Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired  more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you?  Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it.  Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It’s quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire.  You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever.

If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

Signed,

Your Boss

Here is a fascinating interview and rant by Rick Santelli.  Rick Santelli has had enough of subsidizing behavior that we wouldn’t tolerate in our own children.  We don’t artificially boost up our children’s grades when they fail to perform nor do we lower the bar for them.  Instead, we boost up the discipline level and reduce the privileges until the bar is cleared.  When have we ever helped anyone by lowering the bar and thus communicating they are helpless to help themselves?  Whatever you reward is multiplied.  Rick Santelli has had enough and tells it like it is on CNBC.  I wonder what an internet vote would really communicate to our bureaucrats in Washington.  We do not want equality of results, just equality of opportunity. 

At 19 years old, I left my mom and dad’s house with nothing but a dream.  I had less than a thousand dollars to my name and 3 months of my rent covered.  I was going to school at GMI-EMI (now Kettering) and working at AC SparkPlug (now Delphi if it isn’t bankrupt or being bailed out.)  I would get home from work in the winter time and immediately go to GMI-EMI even though it was work term and wasn’t going to school.  It was the only place that was warm because I had my heat set at below 55 degrees Fahrenheit to keep the bill down.  I ate one boiled potato and one hot dog for dinner and would splurge on weekends with Kraft macaroni and cheese.  I didn’t care, because I knew it was temporary.  I had a dream in my heart and knew that I wasn’t lazy.  I knew my friends drove their fancy cars and had school paid for, but that only made me hungrier.  When the going got tough, I knew that I would be ready.  I didn’t ask, nor did anyone volunteer to lower the bar for me.  It is the tough times that make people tough.  Our country must be willing to remember the dreams, struggles and the victories of our ancestors – not just the victories!

Thank you Rick for shining some light into the darkness and helping people see clearer.  I think you shared some things that have been on many hard working American’s minds. We all play a part by educating ourselves and each one reaching another with anything they learn.  This is the time for all American Patriots to rouse themselves to education and action!  I will not stand by idly and let our country fall, how about you?  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

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Here is a super educational video on the credit crisis by Jonathan Jarvis.  Easy to understand and captures the underlying principles masterfully.  This is a “must watch” video for anyone wanting to understand where Wall Street and the Banks went wrong.  Loaning money is not immoral, but loaning money that you know is a bad risk and passing it off to a third party is grossly immoral.  The government getting involved and guaranteeing the money lenders immoral activities is beyond unreasonable.  In other words, the government gives permission to the money lenders to loan money to bad risk customers with a tacit agreement to be bailed out if anything goes wrong.  What a deal!  The government allows all the money lenders to keep all the profits and the USA tax payer gets to absorb all the risk! 

OPM – Other People’s Money

Allowing one group to spend OPM has the same end result thoughout history.  People will spend OPM much more aggressively than they will their own money.  Never get involved in a situation where your money is being spent at the whims of a third party.  Disaster assuredly awaits!  The government intervening in the markets passes the risk off on the taxpayers and the gains to the business community.  This is why big businesses do not mind abandoning free enterprise – they love to reduce risk and when Washington intervenes in the free markets, a monopoly of sorts is created.  The business person reduces risks and passes it on to OPM – the American tax payer.  How many more business entities will Washington (the American taxpayer) bail out because of tacit promises of protection.  Another perfect example of why Washington should not intervene.  Let the business people take the risk of their loans and you will see a more conservative standard on the loans.  The OPM principle will be eliminated and the entrepreneur will have to take the risk and the reward. 

You cannot insure everyone in business and therefore; you should not insure anyone in business.  There should be no special deals at the taxpayers expense.  I am afraid that the wrong lessons are being learned here.  Intervention caused the problems in the first place.  But instead of getting Washington out of business and forcing the risk and rewards to be entirely shouldered by the business community, Washington is now a full fledged partners with the business community and absorbing the business risk on the backs of taxpaying Americans.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and even Alexander Hamilton would stand against this blatant abuse of governmental power. 

Where are the leaders in our society now?  We are witnessing a moral breakdown in business and government of unprecedented proportions and the answers I am hearing are more government intervention, not less.  We are about ready to take OPM to a new level and our current plan looks amazingly similar to Nazi Germany’s plan to regulate the economy of Germany.  As long as business does what they are told, the Nazi government would absorb the risk for the business community.  Hitler would have never come to power were it not for the complicit actions of the business community.  The business community of Germany bought into Hitler when he promised to absorb the downside risk and allow the businesses to keep the upside reward – all secured by the taxpayers of Germany. 

Remember a beginning entrepreneur loves free enterprise and the right to compete based upon allowing the best ideas to win.  But an established multi-billion dollar entity likes intervention better because it cost money and time to follow government regulations and this inhibits new entrepreneurs from freely entering the competitive landscape.  The established business community benefits and the new entrepreneurs along with the market customers are denied new ideas, methods and products.  The larger a company gets, the less they like free enterprise and the more they like a partnership with the government.  The government will assume the downside risk and inhibit new entrepreneurs from entering their markets.  We can get mad at the business owners all day long, but the only way to stop this is to get government out of intervening in the market in the first place.  If they stay out and only play the established role of government as an umpire, not part of the team, then free enterprise will take care of the rest!  Let freedom ring and let the best ideas win.  Let ideas be judged on the merit in the marketplace and if an idea doesn’t fly, then let the entrepreneurs that had the poor idea suffer the consequences.  It is called Creative Destruction and it made America the envy of the world!

America was once the largest creditor nation in the world with its ideas and products serving nearly all markets.  We are now the largest debtor nation and in bondage to those we owe!  We do not lack talented people, we do not lack the right ideas, but we do lack leaders of intestinal fortitude (guts) with moral courage to call out these abuses of power.  I am not a pessimist and believe in my heart that America can and will fix this, but not until we return to the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Allow the American ingenuity the freedom to accept responsibilty for their own lives and we will prosper.  America can show its critics what a freedom loving, principle centered, responsibility oriented citizenry can do!  I love America and what it stands for.  Will we learn from history or have we chosen to repeat it?  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

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History is a fascinating subject because the principles involved are inviolate.  No matter what fancy slogans are used or promises of utopia – economic laws cannot be revoked.  Throughout history, the power of the state has attempted to revoke economic laws and the results are always predictable.  Examples from history proliferate on this point.  The late stage of the Roman Empire, the French Revolution, the German National Socialist, and the Russian Communist Revolution all attempted different styles of state control over the economy.  Each one ended in utter failure and ridicule.  We must remind American’s of the founder’s original American Experiment, which allowed a free people the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Every step in the direction of government controls is a step away from individual liberty.  You can argue with me forever on this point, but history is not on your side.  This is why reading economic, political, and national histories is so important.  Without an understanding of the roots of our liberties, it is easy to have them cut off by demagogues that speak sweet sounding words to our fallen natures.  Here are some of my favorite quotes on history.

David C. McCullough:

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

Edward Gibbon:

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.

Etienne Gilson:

History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought.

George Santayana:

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Harry Truman:

The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.

Pearl S. Buck:

One faces the future with one’s past.

Thucydides:

History is Philosophy teaching by examples.

Ludwig Von Mises lived through WWI and WWII.  He saw the socialistic ideas and what it did to Germany and Austria.  This video is an intriguing look into the man who stood by himself against the onslaught of statist power.  The courage of Von Mises to speak truth in an age of lies should be celebrated and honored.  The Bible states to give honor to whom honor is due.  Ludwig Von Mises should be honored for his ground breaking work in economics and liberty.  Do we understand the price that civilization has paid to have the freedoms we enjoy today?  We have a responsibility to educate ourselves on the principles of freedom.  We must understand the roots of freedom in order to protect those freedoms.  Enjoy the video and watch for the parallels in the history of Von Mises’s time with the current events in our time.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

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Today, with a heavy heart, I will share breaking news on the immoral monetary activity of the Federal Reserve.  Money supply must be tied to economic output of a country or the printed money is merely paper only good for starting fires.  Paper money is a moral promise that the paper is backed by the economic strength of the creator of the paper money.  The reason the Gold Standard was used as a standard practice was to ensure the public that the government producing the money had the wealth that backed up the paper money.  When a government goes off the Gold Standard, it is a clear indicator that the government has run out of money, but would like to print paper to pay its debts without a real wealth to back it.  Argentina, Germany, and other countries that attempted to print money without real wealth backing it have all learned the valuable lesson of inflation and loss of trust.  Would you trade real gold for fake paper? 

I am an American patriot and very proud to be called an American.  Today is the saddest day for me as an American.  The following graph clearly displays that America has chosen to inflate its money supply without real wealth to back the paper money and money credits.  This is immoral in the highest degree.  This is no different than if I owed someone a million dollars and I only had one hundred dollars so I handed him Monopoly money and told him that it was legal tender.  Money should be like a promissory note and that is the true origin of paper money – a promised note to redeem the above legal tender with gold at the owner’s discretion.  This is no longer the case and has proven to be to great a temptation in the hands of our quick fix political leadership.  This is not a Republican vs. Democrat post because I believe all of the politicians have let us down.  Do you honestly believe that real wealth in this country has rocketed straight up like a spacecraft in the past few months?  This is clearly producing money out of thin air with no real wealth backing, which is another name for inflationary policies!

Are there any concerned citizens with enough understanding of the history of the damaging effects of inflationary policies to demand accountability?  Inflationary policies destroy the virtues of savings, destroy the fixed income retirements, destroy the confidence of the markets in our dollar and reward all types of character-less behavior.  Americans cannot print our way out of our debt.  ONLY real wealth producing strategies in the market combined with moral leadership in Washington will right this sinking ship.  Please read Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, Free to Choose by Milton Friedman, and The Case Against the Fed by Murray Rothbard.  We must learn, teach and then do something about this mess.  Our children and grand-children are in peril of never enjoying the American Experiment because we have drifted far from our American principles.  It is time to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington.  Get an amendment passed that forces our political leaders to balance their budget like every American citizen must do.  No borrowing against our children’s futures and no inflationary policies which punishes all the virtuous characteristics needed to operate society.  Will you help?  Get started today by learning this material and then sharing with everyone that want to learn in your local communities. 

As for me, my family and our team, we promise to play our part in the American Restoration!  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

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