25 replies to this topic

[twylyght]

If you dispute the intent of the Constitution as the founding fathers wrote it, I suggest you do a little reading with the Federalist Papers as they will lay out even from Andrews' POV an underlying root of distrust of government given the history they'd observed. Almost all the positions we can take are laid out pretty plainly there. I side with Madison, and most people that have read them have done the same.

As for what qualifies as a sin tax... what if the people in power decide that all abortion is a sin? Prohibition? Perhaps public displays of affection? Interracial marriage? Marriage of any kind? Maybe we should institute Sharia Law?

That is the point of a REPUBLIC rather than a DEMOCRACY. A democracy is a room of wolves with one sheep deciding what they should do for dinner. A republic is that same scenario where the sheep is armed. Majoritarian tyranny is a real phenomenon, and is the REASON that REPUBLICS exist.

http://www.archives....nstitution.html
http://thomas.loc.go.../fedpapers.html

As for the free market... there is nothing truly arbitrary. The prices are set to maximize profit. If the competition dictates a lower price, then a business makes the decision on whether or not to make changes. The consumer then makes a decision for whatever is their reason to support whichever business they deem worth their patronage.

In the case of Wal-Mart, they are the beneficiary of a number of cronyistic laws that exempt them from regulations that other businesses must endure. Moreover, the reasons for having anti-trust laws is to PRESERVE competition for free enterprise. What we currently have is NOTHING like that. You'd do better to find such things in Hong Kong.

Cars? Really? Check out how many times the Volt has been stopped and started in SPITE of the lack of public support because the government has deemed this initiative too important to fail. Same with the banks. Same with the airline industries. Farming subsidies. Amtrak. Public radio and television. Take your pick of whatever bureaucrats have deemed to supersede the public interest.

That is the POINT of being able to LIVE FREE. It is why LIBERTY is a thing that USED to be COVETED as an American ideal. Now? Congratulations... its a system of picking the guy that gives us the most stuff that is pilfered from public coffers stolen from someone else. We are now in a game of seeing how long we can live off of someone else's work. Seems to be working for Europe just great!

[carpantherfan84]

If you dispute the intent of the Constitution as the founding fathers wrote it, I suggest you do a little reading with the Federalist Papers as they will lay out even from Andrews' POV an underlying root of distrust of government given the history they'd observed. Almost all the positions we can take are laid out pretty plainly there. I side with Madison, and most people that have read them have done the same.

As for what qualifies as a sin tax... what if they people in power decide that all abortion is a sin? Prohibition? Perhaps public displays of affection? Interracial marriage? Marriage of any kind? Maybe we should institute Sharia Law?

That is the point of a REPUBLIC rather than a DEMOCRACY. A republic is a room of wolves with one sheep deciding what they should do for dinner. A republic is that same scenario where the sheep is armed. Majoritarian tyranny is a real phenomenon, and is the REASON that REPUBLICS exist.

As for the free market... there is nothing truly arbitrary. The prices are set to maximize profit. If the competition dictates a lower price, then a business makes the decision on whether or not to make changes. The consumer then makes a decision for whatever is their reason to support whichever business they deem worth their patronage.


http://www.archives....nstitution.html
http://thomas.loc.go.../fedpapers.html

In the case of Wal-Mart, they are the beneficiary of a number of cronyistic laws that exempt them from regulations that other businesses must endure. Moreover, the reasons for having anti-trust laws is to PRESERVE competition for free enterprise. What we currently have is NOTHING like that. You'd do better to find such things in Hong Kong.

Cars? Really? Check out how many times the Volt has been stopped and started in SPITE of the lack of public support because the government has deemed this initiative too important to fail. Same with the banks. Same with the airline industries. Farming subsidies. Amtrak. Public radio and television. Take your pick of whatever bureaucrats have deemed to supersede the public interest.

That is the POINT of being able to LIVE FREE. It is why LIBERTY is a thing that USED to be COVETED as an American ideal. Now? Congratulations... its a system of picking the guy that gives us the most stuff that is pilfered from public coffers stolen from someone else. We are now in a game of seeing how long we can live off of someone else's work. Seems to be working for Europe just great!

Life gets in the way. I do not have time to offer a qualified rebuttal because I have stuff to do and I have already been writing for several hours and I dont think you actually read what I wrote but rest assured that more conversation is forthcoming at a later date.

[twylyght]

I look forward to it... and I'll get back to you when I don't have stuff to do as well.

[GAme]

Oh yeah? so what model do you drive

Ha. I used to own a subcontracting company that I ran with a dually with trailer out of my apartment. It makes like really easy when you can just 1099 your own contractors and carry a face policy for yourself. Try having to make payroll and pay SS, workmans comp, insurance, taxes, etc.. You have no clue what your talking about if you don't think taxation matters to small business. Cost of having employees has gone up at least 25% since Obamer came in. What you are talking about is a lawn care company with your buddy, right?

[Tensor]

Ha. I used to own a subcontracting company that I ran with a dually with trailer out of my apartment. It makes like really easy when you can just 1099 your own contractors and carry a face policy for yourself. Try having to make payroll and pay SS, workmans comp, insurance, taxes, etc.. You have no clue what your talking about if you don't think taxation matters to small business. Cost of having employees has gone up at least 25% since Obamer came in. What you are talking about is a lawn care company with your buddy, right?

Has it really or are you just making poo up?

I work for a small business.

In the last year, we've expanded to Charlotte, doubled our workforce, and handed out 10+ % pay increases to every employee while decreasing our healthcare premiums, increased 401k match, and gave out fairly generous (in my mind) Christmas bonuses.

We're on track for a record year and many of our clients are as well. We have about 100 clients and I'd say 95% of them are small business with less than 40 employees. We have clients coast to coast, but most of them are in the Mid-Atlantic.

[pstall]

this is my point. how YOUR biz is doing is only YOUR frame of reference. it's not some bizzare par value for small biz's across the board. each entity has it's own unique set of taxes and costs per the local and state level.

too many of the cases i'm working now are families whose small biz's have collapsed. it is a very interconnected world on the small biz scale and many times, you may only being doing good because your customers are doing good. not because you are some genius.

i have seen every angle of biz's the last 17 years. from advising them on generating wealth and revenue to tax implications to being more innovative to workforce solutions.

[Tensor]

this is my point. how YOUR biz is doing is only YOUR frame of reference. it's not some bizzare par value for small biz's across the board. each entity has it's own unique set of taxes and costs per the local and state level.

too many of the cases i'm working now are families whose small biz's have collapsed. it is a very interconnected world on the small biz scale and many times, you may only being doing good because your customers are doing good. not because you are some genius.

i have seen every angle of biz's the last 17 years. from advising them on generating wealth and revenue to tax implications to being more innovative to workforce solutions.

While I don't disagree that it is different for every small business, our business is intertwined with all kinds of businesses.

We have retail stores, home service companies, construction, manufacturers, real estate, and B2B clients. They're all doing well, and I have the data to prove it because we track every piece of marketing and communication our clients do on the web and off. We listen to every contact that is made and tag them for sales closed, sales lost, etc.

In many cases, we know more about our clients' business than they do.

Across the board we've seen increases in the last year.

If their expenses have risen, it hasn't caused them to fire people or stop hiring.

Does that mean that every business is doing well? No, of course not, but we have a pretty good sample size of small and mediums sized businesses in virtually every industry.

[pstall]

that's good. i would say we are many many years from a bona fide recovery. some elements in the economy may being doing well but it's new growth and new jobs that are going to save us.

many companies did their homework and adapted and have done well. but if the buyers start to go down or funds are reallocated elsewhere for that person to maintain, it has an opposite ripple effect.

what's intresting in what was described and the jobs report is does this mean because of the current tax structure biz is good? does it need to change? if ain't broke don't fix etc? the joys of unintended consequences

[GAme]

this is my point. how YOUR biz is doing is only YOUR frame of reference. it's not some bizzare par value for small biz's across the board. each entity has it's own unique set of taxes and costs per the local and state level.

too many of the cases i'm working now are families whose small biz's have collapsed. it is a very interconnected world on the small biz scale and many times, you may only being doing good because your customers are doing good. not because you are some genius.

i have seen every angle of biz's the last 17 years. from advising them on generating wealth and revenue to tax implications to being more innovative to workforce solutions.

That is a good point. In my experience in contracting, it has been increasingly difficult to hire employees. The IRS is worse than they have ever been.

Tensor - That's a pretty nice success story for this economy. What line of work are you in?

[Tensor]

That is a good point. In my experience in contracting, it has been increasingly difficult to hire employees. The IRS is worse than they have ever been.

Tensor - That's a pretty nice success story for this economy. What line of work are you in?

We do marketing (mostly digital) for small and medium businesses. We also do web design, but we don't really make money off of that. That is pretty much just a foot in the door to sign clients up for on-going marketing services.

Most of our clients are home services contractors like HVAC, plumbing, home builders, remodelers, architects, fire protection, water/fire damage restoration, etc.

We also have a few real estate companies.

We have B2B services like information technology and a historical stock ticker data broker.

A few trade organizations.

Some lawyers.

A major hospital system.

And some other stuff I'm surely forgetting.

Most of our clients pay us $1,500-$4,000/month. We like to pride ourselves on helping small businesses grow. We've had several clients double in size since being with us.

It's been a great company to work for so far. I was employee #13 or 14 I believe and we have about 30 now. Mostly in Maryland, but we're in the process of hiring more in Charlotte.

[GAme]

That's a great market to be in if you can keep customers happy. My stepmom ran a marketing agency for years and was heavy in web, radio, and tv marketing. Very very lucrative if you have a good staff and the right design people.