Dear Federal Government,
I respectfully ask you to stop. Stop paying unemployment, and other entitlements.
I simply can't compete with you. We have the worst unemployment in nearly 4 decades yet I can't seem to hire people. My new business would love to hire a bunch of people, but the DOL and the state, will not allow me to pay them straight commission because of stupid "independent contractor" rules. So I'm forced to pay them, at least, something.
So I'm offering $10/hour plus bonuses. Within 4 months an employee should be making $4,000 - $6,000/month (good money in this part of the world).
But I can't compete with unemployment and food stamps. Working for me, for the first two months, someone would make a few hundred dollars a month more than they would make on unemployment and food stamps...or they could make $200 a month less sitting at home without the "effort" of having to get out of bed and and actually work. I know you don't want to believe this dear Uncle Sam, but there is a HUGE number of people that will choose to sit home and do nothing. Don't believe me....check this out:
My new company put an ad in several publications to hire salesmen. We offered a good base plus bonuses (as outlined above). Believe it or not, with the massive unemployment we have in America, we only received about 30 resumes. Out of those 30 resumes' we were only able to schedule ~ 15 interviews (all interviews were set to occur within 24 hours of our phone conversation). Of the 15 interviews that were set, only 7 people actually showed up at their scheduled interview time. Of the 7 people that showed up, we extended job offers to 6 people, and all 6 accepted the offer. They were schedule to start training today at 8:30 am.
Of those 6 people that accepted the job offer and said they would be here to start today, only 3 actually showed up to start work this morning.
My dear Uncle Sam, please understand that your paternalism of entitlements is destroying this country. The jobs that were out there 3 years ago are no longer there. People are going to have to settle for less, but they are unwilling to settle for a lower paying job when they can sit home and do NOTHING and collect unemployment and food stamps.
This problem has to be fixed and fixed now.
Although there are more, here are a few things you can do to help alleviate this problem:
1. Stop unemployment after three months. You'll be surprised by how many people actually find a way to work when they have too.
2. Drop the rules for "employees vs. independent contractors". Let businesses hire people on straight commission. There's a lot of people out there willing to work to under those circumstances and I know a lot of businesses that would be willing to hire people on a "pay for performance" basis.
3. Free up IRA, 401k and all other retirement/pension money. Let people use their retirement money to start a business and do NOT tax it. Let them withdrawal their money tax free and penalty free and start up a business. Let them pay themselves (and others) wages and buy equiptment and rent office, etc. etc. (whatever they want to do with that money).
4. Tell the IRS and DOL to STOP, STOP, STOP!!!!! Stop auditing and stop making life miserable for small business owners. I know more small business owners that are dealing with IRS and DOL at this moment than I have ever seen in my 24 year previous years in the business COMBINED. Uncle Sam, you can create fear and loathing when you threaten the engine that drives this country. Small businessmen are ready and willing to take the risks necessary to drive this country forward.....we just need you to get out of the way.
5. If any of this makes sense to you, the best way to implement it is to just do it. I know you have a massive proclivity to want to micromanage all of this and put into place all kinds of rules and conditions on how it should be done.....but you can NOT NOT NOT NOT do that. We don't need another jobs bill. We don't need you to micromanage this process. All we need you to do is repeal some laws that are on the books to free up capital and then GET OUT OF THE WAY. We small businessmen will take care of the rest.
Warmly,
A Small Businessman
No comments:
Post a Comment