I would hate to be the winning Presidential candidate. Both candidates are delusional in thinking their economic policies will drag us out of a recession or even improve the economy. The reality is that the solutions offered by both are the equivalent of shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. They are meaningless.
You can cut taxes for 95pct of Americans and raise taxes for the rest. You can cut taxes for businesses and retain the Bush Tax Cuts. You can increase or decrease the capital gains tax 5 or 10pct either way. Under both programs the deficit for the country will increase, we will borrow and print more money. 5 or 10pct variance either way, given the big hole our economy is in wont matter.
The cure for what ails is us the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this country. We are a nation of people who encourage , support and invest in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their ingenuity and come up with a new idea.
Its always the new idea that re energizes this country. Industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc, each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of living. Tax policy has never done that. The American People have.
Entrepreneurs who create something out of nothing don’t care what tax rates are. Bill Gates didn’t monitor the marginal tax rate when he dropped out of Harvard and started MicroSoft (MSFT) (btw, it was a ton higher than it is today). Michael Dell didn’t wonder what the capital gains tax was when he started PC’s Limited, and then grew it into Dell Computer (DELL). I doubt that any great business or invention started with a discussion or even a consideration of what the current or projected income or capital gains tax was or would be.
The impact of tax rates on productivity and development is something economists masterbate about, enterpreneurs don’t waste their time thinking about it. We have business to do.
Entrepreneurs live to be entrepreneurs. I have never had a discussion with anyone about starting a business that included tax rates. Ever. If anyone that wanted an investment from me made a point of discussing tax rates as an impact on their business, I wouldnt invest in them. Ever.
Entrepreneurs live for the juice of making their dreams come true. Of having a vision and fighting to see it come true. The joy of mission accomplished and the scoreboard of the financial rewards.
We are in an economic mess right now. It doesn’t matter who caused it. It’s here. It doesn’t matter what our Presidential candidates and their economic advisors come up with. Its meaningless.
The cure to our economic problems is the Entrepreneurial Spirit of All Americans. Instead of bitching at each other, could one Presidential candidate please show even the least bit of leadership and character and stand up for and encourage the entrepreneurs in this country?
I dont care who is friends with whom, who preached when you went to church, whether you know the actual role of the Vice President, whether you voted with President Bush. I dont care about any of the mudslinging going back and forth. All it does is waste the time of every potential voter. All of that is meaningless.
What we need is our candidates to stop yelling at each other and start looking at the American people and encouraging the best of who we are. That is who I want to get behind. That is what I would like to see for our country. That is what will energize and motivate people to create companies and invent products that will turn the economy.
The best time for little guys to start a business is when the big guys are worrying about surviving in theirs. You dont need to raise money. You need to be smart and be focused. I had no idea until this current financial crisis that when I started MicroSolutions, my first company, it was in the middle of a very bad recession. I had no idea whatsoever. I didnt know what the tax rates were, and I didnt care. I had an idea, a floor to sleep on and a lot of motivation.
Now is the time for Entrepreneurs to step up and do our part for our country. Its up to us to start businesses and create jobs. That is the cure to this country’s economic problems.
To stick with this theme, I want to republish, again, one of my favorite previous blog posts: The Best Equity is Sweat Equity.
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You are so right… what is even harder if you take the incentive out of being an entrepreneur… by being over taxed… we have been speaking about this on Myinvestorsplace.com… Look at Hong Kong and their tax rate… it encourages growth…and entrepreneurship….
Great post…
I own a micro business in it’s second year, and sales are dismal, I still get lots of tire kickers, just less sales, looking for someway to turn things around, I had this thought last night, and it seems to fit here.
assume that small business is the way out of this crisis (I believe it is), assume the nightly news is biased, assume our government (congress) is so busy looking for some expensive “cure all” they just can’t see the trees.
what if they just stopped for a day, and read the local paper for the little local success stories, “Joe the plumber hired a new guy this week”, “Fred’s garage is now open for business”, “pampered pet has just remodeled their salon”, then did a podcast without “reporters summaries” sharing these little stories, lets say they did it once a week, maybe 10-15 minutes tops. Say the president highlighted one or two of the best local stories. Imagine President Obama advertising your business nationwide, think it would help sales?
It seems to me that would be pretty cost effective, with twitter, you tube, and a ton of other free sharing sites, combined with all the blogs; Heck we already pay these salaries, and probably already pay for the news subscriptions, what can a camcorder and web connection cost?
Word of little victories would spread almost instantly. a little positive has to help turn the feelings of normal everyday Americans, put a little confidence in everyone’s day, if not the economy, little by little people will jump on the band wagon.
they will want to be featured by their congress people, just imagine the free advertising all these little companies would get.
Come to think more about it maybe “we the small business people” should start a website looking in small town local sources and report these stories.
anyone interested in partnering?
just a thought.