I am always amazed that good people who share such strong values and care deeply about our country find so many 
ways to disagree and fight with each other. It is virtually impossible to have an honest discussion of anything considered to be in the realm of politics that doesn’t instantly devolve in to demeaning the candidate for the other party. Reason rarely seems to enter the emotional arena of politics.
Business Owners Are Not The Problem
At the risk of making 50% of you angry I simply don’t understand why the truth about the public private partnership that is America fails to reach the light of day.
In my opinion there is no more maligned group in America than business owners. We are attacked relentlessly in the mainstream press and blamed for virtually every conceivable ill.
The Bias Against Business
Just think for a minute how business owners are portrayed on television. We are portrayed as either greedy, manipulative villains (The J.R. Ewing Dallas Model or the Simpsons Mr. Burns Model) or socially incompetent buffoons. (The Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin model).
We are shown breaking laws, destroying the environment, terrorizing employees, ripping people off and basically ruining the world.
If someone can think of one single television show that routinely portrays American business owners as the backbone of this nation please send me a note, I can’t think of a single one.
Who Built it and Where Did They Get the Money?
The competing political arguments over “You didn’t build it yourself” versus “I built my business” have missed one essential point. Every job in America is provided by the efforts of small business owners. What the heck do I mean by that?
Every large business started out as a small business. Some entrepreneur took the risk and built the business up to become a large business. Did they build this business with the support of their city, county, state and federal government that provides roads schools and infrastructure? Clearly a business needs a community and every community needs businesses to provide services.
But here is the real issue. Every public sector dollar spent on infrastructure, schools and public sector jobs has its origin in tax revenue. And the tax revenue comes directly from the profits on small businesses and those small business that become large businesses. No businesses creating profits and employing people means no tax revenue for governments.
Profits Are Essential to Create Tax Revenue for Public Use
Profits are essential for a business to grow and expand. Growth and expansion creates new jobs not government training
programs. Virtually all tax revenue comes from the income taxes, payroll taxes and profits generated by business. Policies that encourage business investment, business growth and business profitability will create more jobs and expand the economy.
Policies that take too big a percentage of the profits for government or discourage growth and investment will retard job growth. This is not an opinion or policy platform debatable issue, it is an irrefutable fact and has been since the dawn of time. Marie Antoinette lost her head because she and her husband bankrupt her nation building themselves a fancy palace at Versaille, France.
The Best Form of Public Welfare is a Good Job for Everyone
The shrill and ever present assault on business owners is ridiculously misinformed and counter-productive. If you want to help the poor then find a way to encourage people to build businesses and offer them good jobs that will allow them to move up the economic ladder. The middle class grows when it has good employers to work for.
Go After the Crooks Not the Honest Owners
Now certainly not all business owners behave ethically. Some are clearly greedy jerks. But the vast majority of business owners devote their lives to providing food, medicine, entertainment and services that enrich this nation. The vast majority are honest hard working people trying to do the right thing irrespective of their political party affiliation. Many of us routinely take a little less so our employees can have more, are active community leaders, and give a significant portion of our time and after tax income to community causes. How many of the big Financial industry crooks that sold worthless investments in the crash of 2008 have gone to jail? At last check Zero. Punish the crooks not the honest hardworking folks.
Jobs Create Middle Class Wealth
The top 10 % of wage earners (earning between $101K and $154K per year certainly not the idle rich) earned 43% of all income in America in 2009 and paid 71% of all taxes according to a Heritage Foundation analysis. Is 71% of all revenue not enough to be considered fair? But that is not the whole story. If top 5%’ers were not taking the risk and investing their time and energy in businesses the other 95% would not have a job at all.
While a typical pharmacy owner may personally earn 5-7% of sales for his/her family the employees combined typically draw 12-15%. of the revenue of the store in to their personal bank accounts through receiving paychecks. So are not business owners compensating society by creating jobs even before their companies paid the first dollar of corporate income taxes?
It’s time to stop the political theater and re-energize a business friendly United States that encourages the development of profitable ethical businesses and penalizes the bad guys without destroying the legitimate good guys. And I don’t care whether you are a Republican or Democrat but I do care that you continue to serve as the prototypical ethical community business.
The Public Trust
The Gallup Poll of the most trusted professionals in America routinely demonstrates that the American People Trust Nurses (85%), Pharmacists (75%) and Doctors (70%) more than any other professions. Then why are Senators (14%), HMO Managers (12%), Congress (10%) making all the healthcare decisions?
Well stated.. however.. I believe that around 50% of the government’s total revenue comes from income taxes.. the rest come from “sins taxes”, gasoline taxes, property taxes, sales tax and other fees on individuals and businesses. The recent quote by Romney that 47% of households don’t pay federal income taxes… what was not said.. that within that 47%..20% get a “tax refund” and 27% just don’t pay any federal income taxes.
IMO … the “safety nets” that were put in place by my parent’s generation (“the greatest generation”) has been turned into a “security blanket” by the baby boomers and our kids…
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It wasn’t until about a decade ago that even Wal Mart had to start hiring lobbyists to promote their needs at the state/Fed level… even their size could not avoid playing “the game”
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Which – IMO – strongly suggests that we have the best laws that money can buy and the best politicians that entitlements can get re-elected.
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They even have a term for what has to happen to “freshmen” members of Congress… they have to be “co-oped into the system”
Of course no-one would have the money to pay gasoline taxes, property taxes, sales tax and cigarette taxes if the didn’t have a job to provide them with income. Some business owners pays their salary which is why they have income to be taxed. I understand that roads and school and public works are needed but the reality is that without entrepreneurs creating real value out of thin air by creating a product or service and producing a profit then everyone would be living in huts and trying to catch their own food. It is a little bit like the chicken and the egg analogy except that history has proven that the prosperity of a nation grows with the growth of its economy. And the economy grows because people make stuff at a profit and employ people.