The Economy Can Never Fully Recover as Long as This Remains…

The Economy Can Never Fully Recover as Long as This Remains…

government regulations and business

When I was a young man, the older men I admired were the independent businessmen. Being a corporate suit issuing orders to underlings never appealed to me, but being a successful man who controlled his own life and business… that did.

Perhaps as a result, most of my friends are independent business people of one sort or another. Not long ago, I had a notable conversation with one of them, during which he said:

You know, Paul, business used to be fun. I’d take my children around and show them what we were doing, and explain the differences we’d make.

I waited just a beat as he winced and then continued:

Now, I don’t want to drag my kids into my business. Every time I move, there are regulations, permissions, forms to file. It takes up most of my time, for nothing. Business isn’t fun anymore. If I could find something else, I’d get out.

And this is a man who has been in his business since childhood, who loves to tell stories about it, and who used to enjoy his work immensely. If this guy is looking for the exit, the problem is dire.

It’s pretty obvious why

I have limited faith in government statistics, but there are a few informative ones on this subject:

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) recently reported that the annual cost of complying with government regulations is more than one trillion dollars per year and has been since 2005.

It goes on to report that big businesses (500+ employees), pay about $7,550 per employee to comply with the regulations. Small businesses, on the other hand (up to 20 employees) pay about $10,600 for every person they employ. And this is just one reason why small, independent businesses are being swallowed up by giant corporations.

Also bear in mind that this is just the cost of compliance with federal regulations. States also impose regulations on businesses. So do most of the county and city governments, especially large city governments.

New rules are produced constantly, and the cost of compliance rises constantly. In the US (and many other places), the cost of doing business has long since become prohibitive.

The Work-Arounds

Clever folks always find ways to get around this insanity, of course. But those ways are extra work and probably help relatively few people.

#1: They get rid of their employees

They find niches in their fields that allow them to escape the endless paperwork, penalties, and senselessly wasted time that comes with being an employer. (If you’ve ever had employees, you know what I mean.)

And what of the workers? Well, some get hired by the few related-industry employers that remain, while others have to take a mind-numbing mid-level corporate job just to pay the bills or get insurance. The rest are living on food stamps, disability, or a dozen other welfare programs.

#2: They go offshore

If your business is not resident where the regulators are, they usually can’t say anything about it.

Not many business people have moved abroad, but lots of them have set up offshore companies and are conducting business on the Internet. These people get their lives back… if they can find a way to make it work.

That is the dirty little secret of offshore companies, by the way: It’s not about escaping taxes; it’s about escaping all that ridiculous, insulting, pointless paperwork. No more spending days crunching numbers at tax time, no filing new reports every time you do something. You just take care of your customers and deliver good product. (Which ought to be enough.)

#3: They pay politicians for protection

Why would anyone donate thousands of dollars to a politician unless they expected to get something in return?

Big businesses pay politicians so that they can make a phone call to get problems that arise fixed. Small businesses can’t afford that, and most small business owners have moral problems with bribery.

Legit Is Dead

Unfortunately, the old “American way” of working hard, conducting honest business, and succeeding is gone, dead, and buried. It may still happen from time to time, but infrequently and off the beaten path.

Not long ago, I found this sign posted on a streetlight in Chicago:

business and government regulations
The sign is right – the old “legit” way of doing business is dead. If you want to get ahead these days, you either try to play a game that is rigged against you, you pay politicians to bend the rules for you, or you avoid the situation entirely.

It seems that the best and brightest – the would-be drivers of the economy – are choosing the last option.

What does that say about where things are going?

Paul Rosenberg

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]

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DC Sunsets

Every single person I know, sales people, teachers, physicians, waiters, etc. wishes they could get a different job because theirs has deteriorated to the point of torture on a daily basis.

Employers, empowered by desperation on the part of employees, just the the shit flow downhill without concern that it will drive people out and raise their costs due to inexperience and the need to train newbies. Managers (who also hate their jobs) just let the brown stuff slide right down the line.

In 1995 when I read Prechter’s “At the Crest of the Tidal Wave” I wondered what it would be like to be in a decades-long bear market.

Given that the real, inflation-adjusted top occurred 13 years ago, and we’ve been waxing and waning in a bear market ever since, I’m beginning to grasp the answer to my old question.

It sucks.

DC Sunsets

PS: Apparently muzzle discipline among cops no longer matters.

I have to laugh; Jane Citizen frets about her neighbors carrying concealed weapons, but civilians who belong to clubs and otherwise take gun ownership seriously (which describes most CCW permit holders) are acutely aware of the THREE CARDINAL RULES of gun safety:

1. NEVER point a gun at something you’re not willing to destroy.
2. Keep your finger off the trigger until on target and ready to fire.
3. Know what is beyond your target; bullets are not stopped by car sheet metal, fences, or typical walls in homes.

COPS, on the other hand, are NOTORIOUS for ignoring basic safety rules. Case in point:
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http://www.prisonplanet.com/ap-photo-checkpoint-cops-point-guns-at-americans-heads.html

DC Sunsets

IF we’re this far into a police state, economic catastrophe already, what the hell will it be like in a few more years when ALL the chickens come home to roost?

Damn it, where’s a decommissioned missile silo (AKA a deep, concrete lined hole in the ground) when I might need it?

Maybe in a few years distributing early season copies of “Doomsday Preppers” will be Big Business.

Hollow man
Hollow man

Good to know I ain’t alone. Legit been dead a while. Go do something each day to bring you joy. Who how it will be when the party ends.

ragdouche
ragdouche

dc “What it’s going to be like….”? It will be wonderful! Citizens will finally be released from the bonds of being “law abiding” and gestapo fuckers like this will be shot on sight.

Sensetti
Sensetti

I am with you Ragman; the sooner the better, let’s hit the reset button

Makati1
Makati1

Al I can say is that the businessmen brought it on themselves. You do NOT get to be a billionaire by being honest or taking care of your employees. Or, at least, not in this day and age. Now it is the next quarters profits and the bonus at the end of the year that is the focus, F–k the employees. Well, they are finding that: no middle class consumers = no profits/bonus.

‘For Profit’ Capitalism killed Capitalism and whatever you call Democracy these days.

Anonymous
Anonymous

ONLY IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!

TeresaE
TeresaE

@Makati

You aren’t listening.

He was speaking of SMALL business. The businesses that support towns, kids programs, beautications, employ people and pay fucking taxes.

Not the rich fuckers that jet off to Monaco and once they have stripped EVERY bit of smaller business competition (through laws and regulations and taxes they DON’T abide by offshoring), they will leave again, and en masse’, and with our fucking kids’ and grandkids’ money.

All through college, and my beginning career, the standard belief (and pretty much reality) was that 75% of private (non-gubment) jobs were created by small business.

Explain how between 2002, and 2005, that (shockingly, I didn’t know as it was NEVER reported even though listed at the SBA.gov) it had dropped to 45%.

I bet the truth is even worse now.

These weren’t “billionairres” they were the bread and butter creators of the greatest middle class – and opportunity to BECOME middle and upper class – the world has ever known.

Your inherent, propaganda-inspired, hatred, of the only people that could possibly hope to fix your future, is sadly funny.

People that have bought into the class hatred have created this place where the people needed to take the risks are figuring out that the risk is no longer worth it.

Becoming just like you.

Unless one directly experiences the unrelenting FEAR that our current regulatory and tax requirements have on a human, you cannot possibly judge anyone that says “fuck it.”

We are now threatened with INCARCERATION and fines of upwards of $10,000 PER DAY, for the failure to file a fucking form.

We have TWO full time employees.

The unraveling and forced enlightenment is going to be a bitch for many, good luck.

And, btw, Makati, even though the media isn’t fucking reporting on it, it isn’t just “individual” policies gettting canceled. Thousands and thousands of small businessmen that provide insurance to their employees are getting booted too.

Ya’ think they are going to come up with doubled premiums, and doubled reporting, when the size of their company opts them out?

Really?

bwaahaahaahahh

There are no jobs because sheeple want to be protected and avenged at the cost of the gubment running every step we are allowed to take. It is simply too fucking scary to think about taking care of yourself, as evidenced by our medical conditions.

A great man once said (or something like it), “if you let the gubment control the growing of wheat, you will soon want for bread.”

Meet your oven sheeple, the bread is becoming harder and harder to find.

ecliptix543

“Meet your oven sheeple, the bread is becoming harder and harder to find.”

Ahh come on now… it’s not an oven, it’s a shower! Free showers for everyone!!*

Come visit our newly renovated Glorious Amerikan Shower Festival!!!

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* (One shower per individual. Any surviving family members may also be liable for the cost of the gas.. err, soap and water used to wash your unwashed arse. Train tickets, however, are still free.**)

** (Free train tickets contigent upon confirmed status as either: a. DHS Snitch, b. Current or former Drone Operator or Technician, c. Other Than Caucasian Ethnicity, or d. Former Congressional Staffer.)

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