“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.”
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Or in the case of Gibson Guitar, somebody else (overzealous government bureaucrats) tried to make that business not happen.
Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz’s explains in the WSJ article “Gibson’s Fight Against Criminalizing Capitalism“:
“Making its way through the House of Representatives is a bill that could help prevent companies from experiencing what happened to mine last Aug. 24. Without warning, 30 federal agents with guns and bulletproof vests stormed our guitar factories in Tennessee. They shut down production, sent workers home, seized boxes of raw materials and nearly 100 guitars, and ultimately cost our company $2 million to $3 million worth of products and lost productivity. Why? We imported wood from India to make guitars in America.
Growing businesses face a number of hurdles in today’s economy. For Gibson Guitar—a company that has created more than 580 American jobs in the last two years—the largest hurdle is the federal government.
Policy makers must stop criminalizing capitalism. This begins by stopping the practice of creating new criminal offenses, or wielding obscure foreign laws, as a method of regulating businesses.
Especially in a bearish economy, entrepreneurs need to be able to operate without the fear that inadvertently breaking an obscure regulation or unknowingly violating a foreign statute could shut down their company and land them or their employees in jail.”
A perfect example from coal county PA.
ReplyDeletehttp://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1447692401/Somersets-PBS-Coals-to-lay-off-225-employees
But I think we're in danger of losing the argument if the Gibson Guitar example is told to adults. By then it's too late. It's the type of thing that should be taught to students at junior high & high school.
ReplyDeleteList of guitar manufacturers:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_guitar_manufacturers
how come all these other guitar companies are not being chased by the Govt and are "happening"?
why is it just Gibson?
Fender, Martin, etc seem to have escaped the boot of govt, eh?
As the owner of two small businesses, the entire statement from Obama infuriates me.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, the backpedaling, infuriates me even more.
ReplyDeletePolicy makers must stop criminalizing capitalism. This begins by stopping the practice of creating new criminal offenses, or wielding obscure foreign laws, as a method of regulating businesses.
It is not that simple.
Businesses take that as a justification of being exalted above regular people.
A perfect example from coal county PA.
The uncertainty excuse has far since passed its expiry date. The excuse only signifies destructive political action, not uncertainty.
As the owner of two small businesses, the entire statement from Obama infuriates me.
As someone not generally predisposed to business ownership, it had no different an impact for me.
Despite that, it is not a justification for businesses to exalt themselves to deity status. Neither is it helpful to the economy to use a general lack of hiring as a weapon - while trying to look innocent with the words of uncertainty, competitiveness, and skill deficiency.
"Businesses take that as a justification of being exalted above regular people"...
ReplyDeleteStill making with the idiotic but entertaining comments, eh sethstorm?
How about some credible substance next time just to show you can do it?
"As someone not generally predisposed to business ownership, it had no different an impact for me. "
ReplyDeleteDon't you mean "as someone not generally predisposed to leave your mother's basement?"
"Fender, Martin, etc seem to have escaped the boot of govt, eh?"
ReplyDeletePerhaps this parasite might provide some clues, Larry.
Cabodog, I congratulate you on running 2 businesses. I wouldn't run a business in this toxic environment if you held a gun to my head.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHow about some credible substance next time just to show you can do it?
Substance? How about the gradual push to strip protections and generally make it bad to not be a business owner?
Not wanting to be a business owner nor having the mindset doesn't mean you should be eternally condemned - despite the wishes of the business world to make it so.
I wouldn't run a business in this toxic environment if you held a gun to my head.
Those who say and believe this are what is wrong with this country. You feel entitled to have the right conditions, workers be damned! Economic sabotage is one of the worst things one can do to this country, which must be stopped.
Sethstorm,
ReplyDelete"Those who say and believe this are what is wrong with this country. You feel entitled to have the right conditions, workers be damned! "
And yet you don't run a business either, and you say you don't wont. How are you any different? You told us awhile ago you were happy to live off the taxpayers. People like you are what's wrong with this country, Sethstorm. Nobody owes you jack shit.
"Substance? How about the gradual push to strip protections and generally make it bad to not be a business owner?"...
ReplyDeleteWhere's the 'credible substance' to back up this statement sethstorm?
"Not wanting to be a business owner nor having the mindset doesn't mean you should be eternally condemned - despite the wishes of the business world to make it so"...
Well sethstorm is not that you're being 'condemned' for not owning a business but for wanting to spend other people's money as YOU see fit...
Life is not GOVERNMENT CHEESE...
ReplyDeleteWhere's the 'credible substance' to back up this statement sethstorm?
Look all around you at the people that will not hire until $bureaucrat is out of office or will only use contractors. Should be easy to dig up examples if you look at your own credible sources.
Paul:
I'm just calling out business on something they keep on calling out on labor. Either you acknowledge that workers are entitled to same or that businesses have no entitlements whatsoever.
Not everyone cares to run a business, and I'm one of the few that is optimized for a large, well-run, low-volatility company that does well by its own enough to hire directly - for long periods of time.
In addition, not everyone in the last two generations is content with a 3-6 month horizon and having no benefits - much less being able to tap into benefits of scale or not pay tons for the privilege.
If you want less of the government cheese, use - in good faith, not bare compliance by technicality - what some Southerner called the best welfare program - a job.
Sethstorm,
ReplyDelete"Not everyone cares to run a business"
You told Mkelley he was what was wrong with America for saying the same thing.
"I'm just calling out business on something they keep on calling out on labor. Either you acknowledge that workers are entitled to same or that businesses have no entitlements whatsoever."
You're not "entitled" to anything. If you don't like how a business owner treats you, skip on up the road to another job and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. The worker doesn't risk any capital. The worker doesn't have to worry about making payroll. The business owner has the right to run his property as he sees fit, same as you have the right to the remote control down in your mother's basement.
"Look all around you at the people that will not hire until $bureaucrat is out of office or will only use contractors. Should be easy to dig up examples if you look at your own credible sources"...
ReplyDeleteNo sethstorm I wasn't the one that made the blindingly stupid statement, you did and yet you offer not a shred of anything credible to back it up...
BTW it isn't a mere parasitic bureaucrat we're talking about either...
People don't go into business to get other people employment especially at fairy tale wages and benefits, why is that such a tough concept for you to wrap your head around?
ReplyDeleteYou told Mkelley he was what was wrong with America for saying the same thing.
Except that he has the willingness to run one.
[some arrogant rant about how a businessperson deserves to feel entitled]
Yet you show that a businessperson should not give up *their* entitlements. Using two disparate situations does not help your case.
If the market worked, your Napoleon complex would be checked long ago.
ReplyDeletePeople don't go into business to get other people employment especially at fairy tale wages and benefits, why is that such a tough concept for you to wrap your head around?
Except that such "fairy tale" wages aren't so.
You just want more pliant workers.
What would you say to someone who has run a successful business for ten years, and was suddently told that to continue his business next year he must buy a special exception permit from the county, at a cost of $25,000?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if that is the cost of the permit, or the cost of the application for one, with the expectation that it will surely be turned down.
"Except that such "fairy tale" wages aren't so"...
ReplyDeleteYet another baseless statement from the sethstorm...
Employees and their skills bend to market pressure like everything else unless there's an externality at play in the background...
"You just want more pliant workers"...
Well no one is forcing the workers to stay and work for wages they don't like...
Said workers can always go somewhere else as you've been told on many occassions sethstorm...
"Except that he has the willingness to run one."
ReplyDeleteOh, that's right. Your unwillingness to get off your ass and show everyone how it's done somehow makes you superior.
"Yet you show that a businessperson should not give up *their* entitlements. Using two disparate situations does not help your case."
Yeah, the business person who risks his capital while you risk nothing definitely is entitled to tell you to get to work or hit the bricks. You are entitled to go elsewhere if you don't like it. So there, I guess you do have an entitlement.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting story about the collection of shipbreaking businesses that have concentrated in Brownsville, and made possible by the ship channel there.
ReplyDeleteOne owner moved his business from Chesapeake Virginia, and cited the ship channel, the better weather conditions, and the superior hispanic workforce there.