Category Archives: Business

A Good Country For Dead Beats

Business, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Law, Private Property, Rights, Socialism

Initially, every parasitical official seeking to renew or secure a grip on the public teat was demanding a halt to what are mostly perfectly legitimate foreclosures on delinquent homeowners. Now cities across the US are considering using eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages. One dreadful cur, Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno, claims that the effort will “boost a recovery of the housing market.”

Fox Business’ Melissa Francis hammered Moreno for his scheming.

“Chicago is threatening to undermine whole system,” blasted Ms. Francis. “If you seize these mortgages from the banks and you just rip them up, why would a bank ever lend money again?” Good for her. But why not use the words “contract” and “property rights”? Why use “system,” so vague and meaningless?

Public discourse never rises above the utilitarian: what works, what doesn’t. Rights be damned. Anything to get away from making a principled distinction between what is mine and what is thine. In a word, property rights.

It is almost always true that a necessary condition for a foreclosure is for the homeowner to have failed to make his mortgage payments. Some even “argue” for all-out sweetness and love for the foreclosed upon. They say that because the banks are embroiled in the fractional reserve system, they should suffer this fate.

That’s like saying that because a legal system is corrupt, murderers should go free; or because an owner who sells a parcel of land partakes in the property tax theft, the buyer should not have to pay him. Or because businesses often act like exuberant idiots during a phase of the business cycle—some as offenders; others as victims—their customers need not pay them. And on and on.

Beautiful BAGS Inc.

Business, Free Markets, Homeland Security, Human Accomplishment, Palestinian Authority

Stop and smell the … private economy. It is a rose by any other name. Everywhere you go, an individual, or many individuals in cooperation, are working their hearts out to fulfill niches and needs for profit.

If you cannot appreciate that 100% of the bounty and plenty you enjoy is a result of the voluntary cooperation between men, then you deserve to be transported back to a mud hut in a far-away land, where your wives and daughters wear grass skirts and carry groceries on their heads, and where no man dares to or is capable of dreaming-up businesses like Costco, Overstock.com, or BAGS Inc..

Just as you thought that the Gulag created at the nation’s airports by the Transportation Security Administration was impenetrable—there comes a company to prove you wrong and improve your life.

That business is BAGS Inc.

At a time when airlines are charging customers for seemingly everything from preferred seats to food, it was just a matter of time before the industry started a delivery service. Now luggage-checking passengers on American Airlines can do what the carry-on travelers do. They can get off a plane without stopping or trying to figure out which black suitcase is theirs in the baggage claim area.
“I thought I’d give it a try,” said Sebion, who scheduled a noon tee time at the Army Navy Country Club in Virginia. “It’s ideal for my scenario. I have to go to a meeting. I don’t want to lug the clubs with me.”
Two hours later, Sebion was reunited with his golf clubs at the country club located about 10 miles away.
The service, run by BAGS Inc., is offered at about 200 airports around the country. Other airlines are expected to follow.
In addition to the normal baggage fees, it will cost a passenger $29.95 to have one bag delivered, $39.95 for two bags and $49.95 for three to 10 bags. …BAGS Inc. decided to start the new service after it noticed airlines were getting better at, well, not losing luggage. The company had already partnered with most of the major U.S. airlines to deliver luggage lost or sent to the wrong destination. BAGS Inc. developed the service as another source of revenue, according to Chief Operating Officer Scott Fasano.

For fear of theft by TSA pimps and criminals, I carry a single bag on board with my best garments and shoes. To the rescue comes a flying FedEx or UPS service. Glory!

The Ass With Ears And His Ali Baba Thieves

Barack Obama, Britain, Business, Europe, Healthcare, Socialism

“The Ass With Ears And His Ali Baba Thieves” is the current column, now on RT:

IdiotCare, aka ObamaCare, kicks in once a company is 50 people strong. In a word, as the business begins to grow. The costs imposed by the healthcare mandate compel small business to duck-and-dive so as to stay alive.

In a televised interview, Kari DePhillips, the co-owner of a small PR firm, explained how the health-care law would impact her fledgling enterprise, and what she was doing to stay in business. (Small business, incidentally, is already adept at negotiating the legislative impositions of affirmative-action laws.)

DePhillips, of The Content Factory, told Fox News’ Gerri Willis that she is “scrambling” to comply with the mandate, for she must provide employees with healthcare or face fines. For this plucky woman, the year 2012 will mark the first time the cost of healthcare per employee “broke the $10,000 mark”! “Multiply that by 50,” and this entrepreneur is in hock to the tune of $500,000.

Unless she curtails her ambitions, those are the additional costs America’s Ass With Ears (Barack Obama) will be imposing on Mrs. DePhillips.

Suitably, hiring “fewer people or hiring in a different capacity” were two of the options explored on The Willis Report. The first alludes to part-time, “1099 contractors.”

Moving to the state of New Hampshire, as part of the “Free State Project”— and in the faint hope that the Granite State will nullify the Affordable Care Act—is another option DePhillips intended to explore.

Unmentioned was the incorporation option. Create a new business, at considerable costs, each time your company reaches 49. As this is hardly a viable option, it is best just to stay small.

“I’m a 1099er,” confirms a British reader. “My customers all split their businesses up years ago to stay under 50. Might’ve been the Family Leave Act along with a bunch of other legislation lumped in with it.”

Britain has morphed into a nation of sheep and shopkeepers, whose vaulting ambitions were on display during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. I am referring to the song, dance and Hosannas the host country gave to its National Health Service, or NHS.

Like the Europeans and the English, Americans will have to learn not to shoot for the sky. …

Read the complete column, “The Ass With Ears And His Ali Baba Thieves”, on RT.

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IdiotCare’s Stunting Consequences

Barack Obama, Business, EU, Europe, Healthcare, Regulation

IdiotCare, aka ObamaCare, kicks in once a company is 50 people strong. In a word, once the business starts to grow. The costs imposed by this mandate compel the company to duck-and-dive in order to stay alive.

Kari DePhillips, co-owner of a small PR firm, explains how the health-care law would impact her small businesses, and what she is doing to stay in business. Incidentally, small businesses are already adept at handling similar situations, so as to avoid incurring the costs of affirmative-action laws.

DePhillips, of The Content Factory, told Fox’s Gerri Willis that she is “scrambling” to comply with the mandate, for she must provide employees with healthcare or face fines.

The additional costs the Ass With Ears will be imposing on Mrs. DePhillips: The year 2012, for this business woman, will mark the first time the cost of healthcare per employee “broke the 10,000 mark”! “Multiply that by 50,” and this entrepreneur is in hock to the tune of $500,000.

Hiring “fewer people or hiring in a different capacity (part-time, “1099 contractors”) are two solutions mentioned on The Willis Report.

Moving to the state of New Hampshire, as part of the “Free State Project,” is another option this enterprising young woman intends to exercise in the future.

Both women failed to mention to the incorporation option. Create a new business (at a certain cost) each time your company reaches 49, hardly a viable option. It’s probably least risky to stay small.

Like the Europeans, don’t shoot for the sky.

In 2006 I visited The Netherlands, one of the more free-market countries on the Continent. Shops did not open, on Monday, until 11:00 am so as to conserve the labor force. Expensive merchandize was kept under lock-and-key; customers treated like potential thieves. The supermarkets—a small, expensive selection of merchandize—made a visit to Costco as invigorating as smelling salts following a fainting spell.

Wait until our businesses look like Europe’s: small, meager, expensive. Then, Americans will blame business and look to Obama for yet more regulation.