2010 and the American Economy

Everybody is telling us the economy is getting better. Really? What drugs are they on and how come they're not sharing!

The problem is that nobody has any cash anymore. We have no solid foundation. Everything is financed in complicated voodoo loans up the gazoo and when the dominoes start falling, like they are now, the ripple effect is impossible to stop.

I got word tonight of two long-standing Sonoma County employers who will not make it financially to the end of the year. Both companies got a little over confident during the last boom cycle and expanded dramatically. Now they have laid off a big chunk of their staff, and the those left are working 18-20 hours per week. We're talking about employees who have 15 years + in with the company. Not an easy management decision to make -- gutting longtime employees. This isn't done lightly.

Employers are not always "evil." Employers get a bad rap a lot of time. I don't think employees realize the pressure of owning and operating a business. Employees don't realize the enormous amount of regulations, laws, insurance, etc., employers face. I don't think employees understand just what it takes to even own and operate a business.

I've been playing this game a long, long time. I've seen actual employees rebel against their employer for being a "tight, stingy bastard" and go into business for themselves. Lo and behold, after about 5 years (assuming they make it through the start-up phase, in which many of them do not) they take on the "management bastard" role themselves. They finally figure out how much it takes to keep a business afloat. It's an interesting transformation to watch.

Speaking of which, I think it should be a prerequisite for any and all politicians to have run a successful business. So many politicians have NO CLUE what it takes and issue mandates that are impossible for employers to comply with. Most politicians have never had a pending payroll. That's why we are in the mess we are in. We have people running California who have NO business sense whatsoever.

....and when politicians are in a bind, they just TAX, TAX, and TAX and create massive CLUSTER FUCKS. They are nothing more than financial bullies. When businesses are failing, businesses don't have the luxury of just raising their prices without extreme scrutiny and justification.

The government has no competition.