We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I tried to read the Drudge Report this morning but it's like TMZ from some alternate universe where slime molds sit on golden thrones and the statues in their temples are fashioned from earwax after a Pantheon of lesser gods like the god of thunderjugs and the demigod of Big Gulps. But other than that, Happy Tuesday!
And all the ones that are being created are just four Asperger agoraphobes in San Francisco that haven't run out of angel funding yet for their potential Twitter app that will let you post reviews of artisanal pottery clay in real time.
"Lancre operated on the feudal system, which was to say, everyone feuded all the time and handed on the fight to their descendants."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum)
It's interesting to me that the Washington Post would 'inform' us that more businesses are being destroyed than created. Yet there was very little analysis of exactly why that's happening or what the impact is likely to be.
Here are my thoughts.
First, Fed policy has allowed the creation of business to be entirely too cheap. Loans and money of any kind can be had fairly easily. VC money is looking for returns all over the place to outstrip the .25% it can earn in a bank. Hmmm....
Second, bureaucracy has limited the ability for small firms to start up, and made it harder for existing firms to stay where they are. Failures are increasing because it's too much work to run a business. Sure, it takes a lot of work to run a business, but most people aren't cut out to run a business normally. Add on all the additional regulations that are popping up, and all the additional paperwork, and damn - the 1 out of 10 suddenly becomes .5 out of 10.
Third, most firms being started are technology-related, as people dream of getting rich rather than working or actually running a business. Try to appear like your cutting edge so Google buys you out. If Google hasn't bought you in 3-5 years, you're busted. Nobody wants to work after they've started a company - you're supposed to retire on the millions from the buyout.
In other words, it's no longer capitalism. It's fiat-driven financial asset manipulation compounded by onerous government regulations that have skewed the overall sense of what it means to run a business while the casino stock market has made buyouts the endgame of all business creation.
Now, if I go start a Port-a-John business, I wonder if Google will buy me out. Only if I install Apple iPads, I guess.
Funny you should mention Port-o-John.....
Went to a cub scout camp out Saturday. Using the potty, there is an erie glow down in the hole.(no moon)
Next morning using the next cubicle see that some little camper has dropped their LED flash in. It's Still going strong!
I want one of those.
Just not that one.
Darwin must be smiling at those house fires in Colorado. Though I imagine a coalition of landlords and fire insurers will get a legislative fix.
Is a long life wonderful when the last ten years or so consist of the major accomplishments of the day are making your bed and remembering what day of the week it is?
How much is a stay at home mom worth? A lot to her children and too her husband but seriously don't they ever get tired of this lame attempt to elevate what is a personal choice. Now that I'm retired I stay at home all the time is anyone going to pay me for it? Oh, that's right, I don't belong to a class that needs to be propped up at every opportunity. Seriously, shouldn't the author of stories like that be a little ashamed at their attempt to manufacture sympathy/support.
drive from baltimore to buffalo. these aren't your parent's times, nor you grandparent's either. industry and jobs are gone . . . still beautiful country but the people confronted with being there now, compared to whenever when, are in a totally different realm than what's been known before.
