My Blog

It's been a while since I blogged. I wanted to be cheerful and optimistic. The more I try the harder it's become. Why? Government!

So, for any of you who might read this - there are a minimum of 3 layers of government: Federal, State and local. For some there are 4 - 5 layers - County, city you live in and city you work in. All these layers impose regulations on businesses while implying that these regulations don't affect the population at large. Well, they do. They impact the price of everything you buy to whether or not you'll ever be hired for a job and how much an employer will be able afford to pay you. The government (all levels) have turned companies into arms of the IRS and make them, through regulation, collect funds from individuals and turn them over to the government (all levels). Then the government, with media assistance, convinces individuals that "it's the corporations' fault" - that somehow corporations aren't made up of people who are neighbors, parents, friends...

Start with a small energy example. We now have alot of "environment protection" laws that forbid or make it very costly to use energy - unless "the Government" likes you. For example - Exxon was fined over $600,000 for the death of  62 birds (not on the endangered species list) caught in an oil slick. You're probably thinking they deserve it. At the same time, in CA, wind farms kill 1,000 birds a day including protected golden eagles that carry a fine of $10,000/bird killed and up to 5 years jail time. The 1,000 dead per day has been going on for a year+ yet NOT A SINGLE FINE has been paid by the wind farms AND your tax money, Federal (and State if you're in CA), is paying to kill 1,000 birds a day. So is the environment protected uniformly as you might expect?

In the example above, when you buy gasoline or heating oil (big seller in the Northeast) you are paying not only for the best compliance Exxon can do, including permits, corporate taxes, minute regulations imposed by all levels of government, but also for the fines that are imposed when there's a mistake. You know there'll be a mistake because people do the actual work and people are fallible. The Federal government (and now many state governments) are requiring "environmentally safe" alternative energy supplies like wind. With wind the "government" has decided that killing birds is OK and "good" for the environment - except for maybe the rotting carcasses of the dead birds, including those "endangered" except not protected because the government has not yet slammed the wind industry with fines. Wind also costs you more than oil (and other carbon based sources) to build and operate and won't provide energy when there's no wind and don't forget to add in your tax money that subsidizes this "environmentally safe" (unless you're a bird) energy source.

You can see that Government regulation can be a bit confusing and contradictory. Now let's look at the new regulations that are being added to every aspect of business by the current administration and you'll find a maelstrom of orders, directives and regulations so big you can barely put 16 hours a week into your small business that doesn't incorporate learning about new impositions and reporting requirements that give you: first - reason to freeze hiring, second - reason to freeze pay, third - layoff, fourth - reason to shut down or hold your breath to see if you can survive until the next administration. For these new regulations (many voted bipartisan against by Congress),  I'm giving you an article to read from the National Federation of Independent Business which represents U.S. small business (those that provide 60-70% of all U.S. jobs). It's worth it for you to do the cut & paste if the link doesn't work:

http://www.nfib.com/press-media/press-media-item?cmsid=57977&utm_campaign=FPP&utm_source=SmartBrief&utm_medium=Email