Uncertainty?

I’ve been reading a lot about ‘uncertainty’ which is stalling the economic recovery. Perhaps it’s time to dabble into the nitty gritties about what is causing businesses to pause… That is, to not be expanding or hiring new employees…. By saying fear and uncertainty, it implies that there might be misunderstanding or unfounded fear. There are concrete reasons why a company would not want to risk spending capital in such an environment. First, let’s get a few things straight at the onset:

1. Companies are in business to make money. Period. I know this is a real problem for liberals but they’re just going to have to accept this. Companies want to make as much revenue as they can and spend as little as they can in doing so. The difference between the two is profit.

2. Companies hire employees to do necessary work. They hope to capitalize and profit from their employees productivity. They will always want to employ the fewest number of employees they can get away with. I know it’s a shock to some – companies do not hire people to be nice. Employee salaries and benefits appear on the expense side of the balance sheet – the fewer employees you have, the lower the cost figure. Get over it.

3. When a company invests capital, they are just like an investor who buys stock: They will only invest in things that have a better than fair chance of returning a gain on their investment. In other words – GASP – profit.

Unlike a congressman, companies are usually pretty careful about what they spend money on. Before any capital gets spent on anything, there must be a business plan. A business plan is a document that proposes an idea for a new product, an expansion of an existing product, a new market, etc. In short, it’s a justification to spend company money or capital. That business plan must be presented to upper management for approval. Depending on the capital amount being requested, it may go to the corporate officers for authorization. An integral part of a business plan is a rundown of estimated costs. If, for example, a manufacturing company plans to open a new plant in a particular location, some of the estimated costs would be:

Rent or lease payments
Dept servicing if property is purchased
Electric utility costs
Water / Sewage
Waste management
Property Tax
Wages and Salaries
Benefits
Training
etc.

Another part of the business plan is target pricing for whatever good or service the company is to produce. Pricing has a lot of variables as well and can depend on several factors: location, competitors, etc. When you consider that most companies operate with a low single digit profit margin, you don’t have a lot of wiggle room for error. If you miscalculate your costs, you might just price your product right out of the market – particularly if you have foreign competitors who can operate without all the regulatory landmines you now face and can offer a similar product at a cheaper price. Worse, if you go ahead and spend money to build a plant or acquire property and find out later that your costs were underestimated, you might not be able to recoup what you’ve spent.  Obamacare and Dodd-Frank are not hard and finite rules as much as they are a framework of bureaucracy….A bureaucracy that has yet to fully take shape. No one is quite certain what rules and regulations will be in place once they do take shape. Those two things alone will have a dramatic effect on almost all of the list of costs above – driving the numbers higher not to mention that the costs of existing operations will also increase. I’m not even mentioning potential cap and trade or a VAT tax yet, which would have even more devastating effects on the above list. Now I ask you: who in their right mind would dare risk company capital when so much on the expense side is uncertain? Only a moron or a senator – Sorry if I repeat myself. Additionally, it seems that this president really has a problem with a company making profit…. So even if you’ve managed to navigate all the regulatory nonsense of obamacare and financial regulation overhaul, who’s to say they won’t create some new legislation that sets a target on the profit you’ve just made? This seems to be especially true if the products you make deal with petroleum. This is why businesses are hunkering down and sitting on their cash. They’re waiting for a new president – one that doesn’t have an obvious hatred of our capitalist system. 2012 can’t come soon enough!

You might be a racist!

It seems that the time is right for a slight modification to ‘You might be a redneck’. Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy!

In no particular order – You might be a racist if:

1. You have serious doubts that the same government who conceived and bankrupted such things as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Cash for Clunkers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc….Can suddenly be trusted to run the nation’s health care system!??!

2. You have difficulty accepting the idea that a bunch of people who have never held any significant private sector job can be trusted to make policy that is beneficial to the private sector.

3. You have trouble believing a president who says he believes in the free market and yet does everything he can to hurt the free market.

4. You find it grossly unfair that politicians and their political cronies do not have to abide by the same legislation they inflict on the rest of us – Like Obamacare.

5. You are not comfortable with the idea that the person who squandered every opportunity for improvement and is now living with the consequences of poor life’s choices is now somehow your responsibility.

6. You feel an incredible urge to call someone who believes in ‘spreading the wealth around’, government control / ownership of major companies, and nationalized health care, A SOCIALIST!

7. You believe that a person who has spent his life gravitating toward those with socialist / Marxist ideologies, spent 20 years listening to the ravings of an America hating Marxist, is on tape advocating socialist ideas, could in fact be a socialist.

8. You have an irresistible urge to call someone who has an extensive track record of saying one thing and doing the opposite, a liar.

9. You have a tough time feeling sympathy for people who have had money and assistance thrown at them for decades and still can’t seem to succeed – yet there are others that come to this country not even speaking the language, who manage to thrive after only one generation – with hard work and dedication.

10. You believe that life is a do-it-yourself project and if you are sitting around waiting for the government to help you, you’re a big part of the problem.

11. You feel that if more people believed in the rule of law, self reliance, and hard work – liberal democrats would have to go find real jobs.

12. You believe that Detroit and California are perfect examples of what happens when you have liberal democrats in charge for a long period of time.

13. You believe that equal opportunity means just that – OPPORTUNITY. Outcome is a different matter entirely.

14. You believe that programs like Affirmative Action do more to hurt those same groups that it supposedly helps.

15. You believe that giving preference based on racial background to be just as abhorrent as discrimination based on racial background.

16. You believe that when a group of people have a high rate of teenage out-of-wedlock births and low high school graduation rates, it’s not surprising in the least that you’ll find a high poverty rate to coincide.

17. You’re not surprised in the least that when you open up the government wallet to provide give aways to certain people, those same people modify their working lives to make sure they maintain all the give-aways rather than outgrow them and move on. Worse, they teach their children how to do the same.

18. You believe that all the money in the world thrown at education is no match for 2 parents who are actively involved in their child’s education.

19. You believe that not giving a home loan to someone with a crummy credit rating, no assets, and a poor job history is a sign of responsible lending practices.

20. You think there was a reason that lady justice has a blindfold. A murderer or thief, regardless of their background or race, is still a murderer or thief. A person’s background or economic situation is irrelevant.

21. You believe that as unfortunate as true incidents of racism or discrimination are, they pale in comparison to a minority individual who’s been convinced that he or she cannot accomplish anything without the assistance of government.

22. You find it curious that if diversity is so damn important, why doesn’t it apply to professional sports teams?

23. You think it’s more important to fill a position with the most qualified person available and the idea of diversity is entirely beside the point.

24. You believe that people like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson have done more to promote racism and racial tensions than to eliminate them. Additionally, you also believe that they profit handsomely on keeping “racism” alive and well.

25. You find it strange that the same people who find it unacceptable that a health insurance company would deny coverage to someone seem not to have a problem with government denying that same coverage to someone.

26. You think it’s a sign of insanity that the U.S. wants to emulate healthcare systems that are currently bankrupting their respective countries.

27. You find it hypocritical that all the people who continue to bash our country and can never find a kind thing to say about her oddly still choose to live here.

28. You believe that until minorities learn to stand up and do for themselves, they will always have to depend on the government…. If that happens, don’t be surprised if you don’t get a lot of respect from those who are supporting you with their tax dollars.

29. You find nothing wrong with people who believe in God and try to live their lives according to Judeo-Christian ideals. In fact, you find them to be mighty fine folks!

30. You find it strange that for such a ‘peaceful religion’, there is sure a lot of death and destruction surrounding Islam.

31. You find it curious and cowardly that those who bash Christianity for being hate-filled, oppressive, etc. are somehow silent about Islam and the things they do.

32. You’re grappling with the outrage those on the left felt toward the ‘Patriot Act’ as being intrusive yet there is nary a peep about the intrusiveness regarding Obamacare. Additionally, our current president is maintaining the major parts of the Patriot Act.

33. You cannot reconcile the disparity of killing scores of ‘suspected’ militants via unmanned drones – yet treating the crotch bomber who WE KNOW BEYOND ANY DOUBT was trying to kill hundreds of civilians, with all the rights and privileges afforded a U.S. citizen. (Don’t get me wrong – I like the killing scores of suspected terrorists part! )

34. You’ll start believing in global warming / climate change / etc.  When you see Al Gore and all the hollywood lefties all trade in their private planes for bicycles.

35. You wonder why those who are so concerned with saving the planet seem not to consider how having all of them jet off to Copenhagen for a group hug might seem hypocritical to us simpletons who just don’t get it.

36. You scratch your head when you consider that labor unions have been a contributing factor of many businesses and states that have gone or are going bankrupt – why would any sane person want more unions via card check??

37. You then realize that most political contributions from labor unions go to democrats – you stop scratching your head.

38. You fail to see how the bailout of GM and Chrysler – particularly the deal between the unions and bondholders, can be viewed as anything but a political payback?

39. You feel that the above example makes the liberal outrage over the Cheney – Halliburton thing seem very silly.

40. You feel overall that government tries to fix things that really ought to be fixed by individuals and families. Doing so only results in growing government.

41. You feel that when history is so replete with examples illustrating the failure of appeasing dictators, you think only a moron would employ that as method of foreign policy.

42. You’ll start believing that islam is a tolerant religion when you see churches and synagogues being built in Mecca or Medina.

43. You believe that there’s a serious difference between being tolerant and being played for a sap!

44. You believe that allowing the ground zero mosque to proceed definitely falls in the category of being played for a sap! In addition, allowing the construction of said mosque is an unforgivable insult to those who died on that day!

45. You believe that if it’s true that the purpose of said mosque is to promote ‘tolerance and mutual understanding’, the fact that almost 70 percent of Americans polled are against it demonstrates that they’ve missed their stated goal!

46. You think that even though 70 percent of Americans are opposed, proceeding with construction of the mosque only demonstrates that ‘tolerance and mutual understanding’ were not the real intentions to begin with.

47. You can’t figure out why liberals are so quick to embrace islam when in most islamic countries, women are considered second hand citizens or worse; property… and don’t talk even talk about homosexuality.

48. You find it strangely curious that the ACLU, while relentless in it’s efforts to erase any reference to God or Christ in America, seems to be Ok with government and it’s absolute jumping into bed with Islam. What ever happened to separation of church and state? Apparently mosque and state is just fine.

49. When you have a president who:

A. Once told a reporter that the ‘Muslim evening call to prayer’ was the most beautiful sound.      B. Has stated that America is not a Christian nation.      C. Has converted NASA from a space exploration entity to a muslim outreach entity.      D. Apologized to muslim nations everywhere for America’s arrogance.      E. Has scrubbed all references to muslim extremism or islamic extremism from the federal vocabulary.      F. Has now fully endorsed the building of a mosque in what is without a doubt the most inappropriate place imaginable.      G. Has done for Israel what Jimmy Carter did for a once pro-U.S. Iran in the 70s.      H. Is using taxpayer money to fund the middle east excursion of the imam that’s building the ground zero mosque.       I. During a speech to the middle east, stated: “part of his responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

It doesn’t surprise you in the least that 1 in 5 people think the president is a muslim. In fact you’re wondering what’s wrong with the other 4!

50. You get a little tired of people coming to the U.S. and rather than assimilate to America, they expect America to assimilate to them.

51. You can’t figure out why it’s considered racist if  a white person doesn’t vote for Obama but Obama getting 90% of the black vote isn’t.

52. You find it odd that the same people who want government to ‘Stay out of their bedrooms’ demand that same government to subsidize the activities in those bedrooms (contraception/abortion)

53. You wonder when the people who are so incensed with Dan Cathy’s comments regarding traditional marriage will start boycotting gas stations? After all, a lot of oil comes from OPEC nations, some of which put homosexuals to death for being homosexual.

54. In addition, you wonder why more people aren’t horrified at certain mayors who threaten Chick-fil-a for nothing more than their CEO exercising his first amendment rights.

55. You wonder if these same chowderheads realize that the first amendment wasn’t written to protect speech that people agree with but rather the speech that they do not.

56. You find it incredulous that in light of the past 3 years and what has been done by democrats generally and Obama in particular…Why would any sane person vote democrat?

57. It puzzles you as to why is it considered greedy when people in the upper income brackets want to keep more of their own money but when those in the bottom levels want to be given more of someone else’s money, it is not?

58. You’re sick of hearing about how the rich, who pay the lion’s share of taxes, aren’t paying their ‘fair share’ when the bottom 40 percent pay nothing at all. Worse – they get money thru the earned income tax credit scam!

59. You feel that in the spirit of consistency, if it’s fair to call someone who supports traditional marriage – anti-gay, then it’s also fair to call someone who’s pro-choice – anti-children.

60. You believe that in actuality, the pro-choice – anti-children association is quite accurate since abortion actually does murder children!!

61. You don’t wonder at all about the disproportionate level of convictions and incarcerations of young black males when it’s that same demographic that’s perpetrating most of the violent crime.

62. You find it extremely amusing that the same democrats who rail against voter ID laws don’t see the irony in forcing patrons to produce a photo ID to attend their convention.

63. You wonder when it’s going to dawn on minorities that it’s patently insulting when democrats imply that they’re not bright enough to obtain a photo ID to be able to vote.

64. You feel that it’s a reasonable assumption that anyone objecting to requiring photo IDs for voting know that voter fraud works in their best interest.

65. You conclude that if you completely eliminate voter fraud, democrats wouldn’t win many elections.

66. You have no doubt that if it was found that illegal aliens favored republicans over democrats, democrats would want a 50 foot stone wall constructed along the southern border with machine guns every 500 feet.

67. You wonder that when the government currently spends a trillion dollars more per year than they collect in taxes, when they will stop promising free stuff to the morons of society?

68. You wonder when the morons will figure out that the politicians promising all that free stuff are lying to them?

69. Your biggest fear is that the morons outnumber the intelligent.