FLASHBACK: Change

This was originally a posted in August of 2008. Looking back, so much has uh, changed. But so much more hasn't...

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I think the Dems' urgent message of "Change" needs to be called out.

"down" is a change from "up"

"loss" is a change from "profit"

"jobless" is a change from "employed"

As a business owner, the only "Change" I see with a President Obama is bad, bad, bad for the guys who make this country great and who create, like, 80% of the jobs in America: small business owners.

We're getting creamed by the federal minimum wage increases -- the big one's coming next year... For those who don't know, it's a 40% increase over three years.

We're getting creamed by increased requirements to provide health insurance, and the crazy-stupid cost of it.

We're getting creamed by the weak dollar, high energy prices, and high commodity prices (special thx to the ethanol canard).

We're getting way-creamed by credit-card processing fees.

If you're wondering why everything from milk and meat to gas and movie tix have skyrocketed, see above.

If you're wondering why unemployment is going up, see above.

If you're wondering what's the deal with inflation, see above.

So many people seem to think that the everyday business owner (the Quiznos store owner, the Shell gas station owner, the neighborhood 7/11 guy) can reach into some magical unending pot of money to cover these rising costs. Obama certainly seems to think so.

Let me set the record straight: we can't. We're bruised and hurting - but not down-and-out. We get up each morning to make a go of it - to make the best of it. We love what we do and we love the people we work with. But in order to stay in business and pay our leases, our mortgages, our SBA loans, etc, and feed our families, we're having to not hire that extra shift worker. It's not because we don't want to. It's because we literally can't afford the up-front costs/overhead that worker represents. We also have to raise prices. Again, we don't really want to - we have to (see above).

From what I can see so far, the policies Obama has outlined will make things way worse.

Yes, things have not been perfect, but with all candor, we're due for a dip in the economy. How deep of a dip we will have goes directly to how much government tries to "redistribute" us out of this.

The best-case scenario for right now, I think, is unleashing our best minds and producers to solve our domestic energy deficit. LOTS of other things fall into place once we do that.