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thatcrazycajunI am sick and tired of reading letters like this from a guy named Fred Hahn (scroll down) in my local paper. And this from one Lucien Lane. And the anonymous reader in The Vent posting "Anyone that would start a business while [Barack] Obama is in the White House is a fool." All from business owners and their friends saying that the reason the recovery continues to be largely jobless is that business owners won't hire in the face of "uncertainty" in the economy arising from federal legislation being enacted or discussed.
One businessman after another (and it is always a man) asserts that he cannot justify making such investments when his firm is under threat of new costs and regulations being imposed on them by Washington (read: Democrats). Health care reform, immigration reform, financial industry reform—you name it, it's paralyzing their will to hire or expand. How much do you want to bet that every one of these whiny-assed employers are regular Republican voters?
Any truly successful entrepreneur with real-world experience knows (or damn well should) that the market is forever uncertain. Unless they know where to procure a working crystal ball, no one is capable of foreseeing what will happen in future, regardless of the tax or regulatory climate. Yes, these things are factors, but the person's own good (or poor) judgment and business acumen—not to mention the acts of competitors, consumers and God—are at least as important. And history has shown that government policies that were decried as bound to destroy whole industries and wreck the economy did no such thing (Medicare, the Clean Air Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act...I could go on).
The company I work for has seen business increase and just spent thousands of dollars on new software and equipment despite all this "uncertainty." The recent financial crisis and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are only the latest examples of what happens when we give in to the endless demands from business and the political right that the feds "get out of industry's way." Business is not in and of itself an inherent evil, the views of some to my extreme left notwithstanding...but it is only as ethical (or not) as the people running it. And sometimes government needs to step in when they fail to behave ethically...or ideally, before they do wrong. The last administration had the opposite view...and we have seen what came of it, to our sorrow.
Someone has to break the vicious cycle of no hiring/no spending/no jobs...and business owners are in a far better position to make the first move than individuals or families are. And these namby-pamby businessmen who are among the first to say Obama should quit blaming the last guy for the economy need to take a hefty dose of their own medicine and quit blaming Washington for their own stinginess and lack of nerve.
One businessman after another (and it is always a man) asserts that he cannot justify making such investments when his firm is under threat of new costs and regulations being imposed on them by Washington (read: Democrats). Health care reform, immigration reform, financial industry reform—you name it, it's paralyzing their will to hire or expand. How much do you want to bet that every one of these whiny-assed employers are regular Republican voters?
Any truly successful entrepreneur with real-world experience knows (or damn well should) that the market is forever uncertain. Unless they know where to procure a working crystal ball, no one is capable of foreseeing what will happen in future, regardless of the tax or regulatory climate. Yes, these things are factors, but the person's own good (or poor) judgment and business acumen—not to mention the acts of competitors, consumers and God—are at least as important. And history has shown that government policies that were decried as bound to destroy whole industries and wreck the economy did no such thing (Medicare, the Clean Air Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act...I could go on).
The company I work for has seen business increase and just spent thousands of dollars on new software and equipment despite all this "uncertainty." The recent financial crisis and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are only the latest examples of what happens when we give in to the endless demands from business and the political right that the feds "get out of industry's way." Business is not in and of itself an inherent evil, the views of some to my extreme left notwithstanding...but it is only as ethical (or not) as the people running it. And sometimes government needs to step in when they fail to behave ethically...or ideally, before they do wrong. The last administration had the opposite view...and we have seen what came of it, to our sorrow.
Someone has to break the vicious cycle of no hiring/no spending/no jobs...and business owners are in a far better position to make the first move than individuals or families are. And these namby-pamby businessmen who are among the first to say Obama should quit blaming the last guy for the economy need to take a hefty dose of their own medicine and quit blaming Washington for their own stinginess and lack of nerve.
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Date: 2010-07-01 12:27 am (UTC)When there's no individual responsibility, people behave worse, on average. When there is pressure in one direction but not the other, people will behave even more worse, on average. (Yes, I am aware that "more worse" is not proper English. Ask me if I care.)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 09:59 am (UTC)There is plenty of economic uncertainty that prompts businesses not to spend money, but it has much more to do with the current state of global affairs and the U.S. economy. The notion that it is regulatory uncertainty that is holding things up, as compared with uncertainty over the general strength of demand in the next 6 months, is absurd.
The problem with the current cycle of no hiring/no spending/no jobs is that John Maynard Keynes was right. At critical moments, only the government has the resources to add sufficient money to the system to run past the rough patch and even out the economy. But no one else in the world is buying into Keynsianism anymore, including here at home. So we are probably due for another dip in employment as states lay off workers, freeze salaries, and otherwise deal with the lack of funds.