The Rich Wasp

As I have previously mentioned, I have often thought about starting my own business, which would for liability reasons be incorporated.  Given recent political events, it occurs to me that the US under President Barack Obama is not likely to have policies friendly a corporation.   Quite happily I have found the perfect place to start a corporation.  A place with reasonable tax rates and rules that are simple, clearly defined and easy to follow.  It is, dare I say it, a place that is every corporation owner’s dream.  A place where you can spend your time running your business, not dealing with arbitrary rules created by bureaucrats.

There’s only one small problem… Read the rest of this entry »

Unfortunately, I’m a bit too busy with real life to blog.  However I just added two worthwhile blogs to the blogroll.   First is Watts Up With That? which is Anthony Watts’ blog about global warming.  The other is the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog which contains links to over 4000 stories of civilians who use guns in self defense.

For some time I have thought about starting my own business.   Recently I was hit over the head with the opportunity to take the leap and be my own boss.  I had to sit down and make a careful decision.  There are obvious benefits to being my own boss, and there are obvious risks involved.  Owning my own business would certainly mean more hours and more stress for the potential of a higher income.

I would like to thank President Obama for simplifying my decision.   After having considered the likely impact of the President’s spending proposals, and the need for a massive tax increase to pay for them, there is no way on earth I want to be running my own business now.   It is obvious to me that taxes are going to have to be raised for more than just the 5 percent who make more than $250,000 per year.  The price of Obama’s tax and spend policies is going to impair economic growth for years to come.

Given a choice between being an employee or a small business owner in the worst economy of my lifetime, I choose employee.  So I’m not going John Galt and dropping out of the economy.  But I’m not going to subject my money or the value of my time to any more risk than I have to in the current economy.   So I’m while I’m definitely not going John Galt by dropping out, I’m also not going to exert any more effort without a clear and immediate reward.

There has been much criticism of the Tea Party movement as of late.  I went to a Tea Party last week.  The document most referenced on signs of the protesters was the United States Constitution.  The person most frequently quoted person on the signs I saw was Thomas Jefferson, who as I recall was a Democrat.

My reason for going was quite simple.  I think the “Change” proposed by President Obama is to take the United States in the wrong direction.  President Obama has proposed massive increases in government spending, and the tax hikes he has proposed to pay for them are clearly insufficient to pay for them.

I predict that the proposed increases in the taxes on the rich will drive the rich to seek to do everything possibly to minimize  their income tax liability.  I predict the rich will leave the office earlier every day and take longer vacations.  I predict the rich will choose to postpone paying higher capital gains taxes by not selling their appreciated property.  I predict the rich will switch to investing in tax free municpal bonds.  All of these things combined will mean that the proposed tax increase won’t bring in as much money as President Obama says it will.

Next year President Obama will redefine rich as anyone who makes more than $200,000 per year and propose even higher taxes on those Americans.   Within just a few years, the rich will be redefined to include those households making $50,000 to $100,000 per year which includes yours truly.  Meanwhile, the deficits will continue to grow, saddling future generations with huge amounts of debt.

This will be another attempt by the Democrats to target the rich.  Just like the Alternative Minimum Tax, though, it will miss the rich it was aimed at and hit solidly on the middle class Americans that Obama claims to represent.

What I saw at the Tea Party was a group of Central Indiana residents who agree with me and have had enough cynical politicians lie to them and wind up screwing them.

This morning I left my apartment wearing a medium weight jacket.  Almost four weeks into spring and I was so cold i wished I had worn my heavy winter coat.  I know that one unusually cold day no more disproves Anthropogenic Global Warming than an unusually hot day would prove it.  But still this spring has been relatively cool, as this was not the first day this sprring I wished for my winter coat.

I am planning on attending the Indianapolis Tea Party which is Wednesday afternoon from 4:30 to 6:30 at the south lawn of the Indiana State Capitol Building.  Will you be there?

Thanks to Nathan Brindle for the information.

It just occoured to me that I frequently read both Dr. Helen and Megan McArdle and that neither of them are on the blogroll.  Also I read Hoosierboy’s Fat in Indiana and notice that he has blogrolled me.  So I have gone ahead and added him to the blogroll as well.

If either of my readers wondered, I’m still here and alive.  It just so happens that I’m a little busy at the moment.  I have lots of things I want to say, but so little time.  I will be posting my thoughts and opinions here as time permits.

I would like to thank Instapundit for linking to this post.  It is a simple and well written story about our greatest generation.

President Obama has been telling us all how bad the economy is in order to sell his stimulus plan.  Which I would argue is not a stimulus plan, but a reward to those Democratic Party special interests which helped get President Obama get elected.

What we really need is a leader with the wisdom and character to tell the truth.  That is the economy will recover with or without our government’s help.  The problem is that we are a nation of debtors, and we have a government who represents this all too well.

We as a nation threw a wild party paid for with debt.  Imagine if you will that you keep throwing a wild party every Friday night paid for with your credit cards, and wake up every Monday morning with a hangover.  Only now you wake up on Monday moring to find out that not only do you have a hangover, but also your credit cards are maxed out and your boss is about to fire you.  Our government has proposed as a solution to this problem that they will pick up the tab for the next party.

In reality there isn’t a one size fits all solution.  If you keep waking up with a bad hangover, the solution is to drink less.  So throw a party every Friday night, but serve 2 or 3 beers per person instead of a whole case.  If you don’t have the self control to stop drinking after 2 or 3 beers then maybe you should consider joining Alcoholics Anonymous.

What I’m saying is that the underlying problem is that millions of Americans don’t know how to use credit responsibly.  That is the primary cause of the problem.  The secondary cause is that lenders forgot to apply rational standards to decide who they loan money to, and how much they loan to them.  Or it may be that our government compelled them to abandon those standards.  The only solution to this problem is for the American people to learn how to use credit responsibly or not at all.  Nobody in the government is talking about this.

Once we realize this, we are on the first step to permanently improving the American economy.  We’ll still have the economic cycle.  What will change is that the bust part of the boom bust cycle won’t be as bad.

There are millions of responsible Americans who can pay their bills and are waiting for signs of economic recovery to get on with their lives.  I for one am fortunate enough to have my the money in my IRA sitting in cash.  My wife and I have the down payment sitting in savings to buy our first house.  However if I think that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better, I’m going to wat to start switching my IRA back to stocks and hold off on buying a house.   Because if the economy gets worse, the market is going down even farther, and there are better deals to come.