I appreciate your intelligent response, although I don't agree with it.
I'm thinking how to phrase this to make it rather gentle.
People who own businesses and own apartment buildings are people too. Just because they own a business doesn't mean that they are making a living or have a lot of money.
Most small businesses fail.
What is the survival rate for new firms?
Seven out of ten new employer firms last at least two years, and about half survive five years. More specifically, according to new Census data, 69 percent of new employer establishments born to new firms in 2000 survived at least two years, and 51 percent survived five or more years. Firms born in 1990 had very similar survival rates. With most firms starting small, 99.8 percent of the new employer establishments were started by small firms. Survival rates were similar across states and major industries. [/I]
People who own apartment buildings can get foreclosed on too.
The difference is if you lose your job, you lost a job, when a business fails, a business owner is losing a big investment and often can now be in large debt as a result.
Yes, if you own a business, and let's say an employee sells a vase that cost $5, the employee doesn't get that $5. Why? Because you also have to pay from that $5 the employee's wages, rent, utilities, taxes, and who knows what else. You also have taken a great deal of risk maintaining a small business.
Your landlord can charge you $600, and yes the landlord does make a profit. What happens though if the apartment has a number of vacancies. The landlord can soon go into foreclosure and lose the building.
These people are human too. Many of them can have a lot of financial trouble as well. They just probably have more zeros attached.
I don't understand why you feel that if I succeed someone failed.
I was a salesperson doing door to door sales on commission only.
I created my own business doing the same thing, selling the same product.
I now employ a bunch of salespeople. Some of them I pay $2,000/week.
Who failed because I succeeded?
I am providing livelihoods to people who may not have jobs. I provide a product to my customers, and I pay a lot of taxes. How exactly is that bad?
I was struggelling for over 10 years. As I said I was nervous buying lettuce in the grocery store. For a time, my wife and I lived in my brother in law's basement. We paid him rent for it.
Yeah, it is tough out there, but it's not impossible. The defeatist attitude bothers me. If that's what people believe that's what will happen.
I agree with you regarding credit cards. IMO it's legalized loan sharking without the actual leg breaking.
I want to stress again that I have the greatest sympathy for those who can't work like the elderly, and those who are truely seeking work, and aren't too proud to take a job that they feel isn't at their level.
I have disgust for those who would rather live off the system than work hard, and I have encoutered a lot of them.
This is America. Anything is possible.
Just as a side note. I mentioned that I used to get nervous buying lettuce in the grocery store I know feel wonderful that I buy my wife flowers once a week
I get everything you're saying. You take it too personally, and what I mean by that is, you think I'm talking about you personally. I'm not. You and me and everyone else on here are small potatoes, not even a blip on the radar. The people I'm talking about certainly do not spend any of their free time on USMB.
However in your situation, whose going down because you're going up? Well I don't know what you're selling, but anyone else who's selling it is going down. If you're still marketing door-to-door, the local stores that sell it are losing revenue. If it's non-commodity, you're taking a portion of your customer's disposable income that would have been spent elsewhere. And that's fine, that's competition, that's capitalism. It's a game I play too.
Perhaps I am taking it too personally. You do have a point, that if I get a sale, another competitor isn't getting that sale.
However, I see this as benefitting society. Why? Because that puts pressure on businesses to offer the best product for the lowest price.
If there was no competition, there would be no pressure for businesses to offer a good product, for a reasonable price, especially if the product is a necessity for the consumer.
Wouldn't you agree?
The people I'm talking about are big box retailers... Bankers... importers... huge, mutli-national firms that stifle competition... Pharmaceutical companies... Insurance (that's a big one.)
Actually the same rule applies only on higher scale.
If there was one auto manufacturing company, would that company be pressured to come up with the best car, for lowest price? Why would they? Because they have so much competition they are forced to offer a better choice to the consumer.
For example, let's take... Oh I dunno... Wal-Mart.
The Waltons are worth about US$90Billion, but they didn't produce a single thing, ever. How did they get this money? The answer is, exploitation on all fronts, plain and simple. They exploit a flooded labor pool by paying employees as little as possible (Less than $20k on average). They do business with 3rd world nations who exploit workers even worse; And with their massive buying power, they have an unmatched ability to "Beat them up" on price even more, leading to further exploitation. Nothing they sell there is made in the USA, even though that was a big part of their image in the early days. The local competitors go out of business because they can't compete with the buying power they have, which makes unemployment even worse. In a single breath, they exploit the daylights out of a situation they helped to create. Where does all this money go? Up to the Waltons. Just what the hell do you do with another $500 million when you're already worth $90 billion?
Banks are just as bad. Competition has been shaken down for decades through mergers, acquisitions, and simple market manipulation. It'd be enough to make Rockefeller blush. They used to make their money through lending, you know our fractional reserve system. But the problem is that nowadays the average person is broke, so they found new creative ways to make money off broke people. Fees, rather than interest income, have become the new cash cow for banks; Low balance fees, overdraft fees, late payment fees, whatever they can think of to monetarily punish you for not having money. I did $4k in fees one year, 04 I think when I was just starting out. That was a LOT of money to me back then, a lot. It's still a lot of money to me now, but back then, my bank almost put me out of business! And of course the amazing interest rate that doubles when you pay late as we discussed earlier; You're broke, no problem, just give us some more money!
Good for Sam Walton. How many people like Sam Walton are there? Most people have failed?
Walmart also creates thousands of jobs, AND it offers a good product at a cheaper price for the consumer. That is good. Don't you think it's good for poor people to be able to buy a product for cheaper if they can, especially groceries?
I never begrudge anyone for how much they make. That doesn't help me one bit. I think it's an aspiration for how much I can make.
Here is something we can agree upon, fees. I think that's rediculous, especially with credit cards.
Credit card companies are salivating for customers to be late on a payment so they can really fuck them. Also if they can hardly make their credit card payments because of a problem with income, how can they keep up with all the fees and late payments?
We have agreement there
Guess how many credit cards I have? Zero.
Now myself, I climbed out of it. But I had every advantage in the world too; Young, intelligent, white, good looking, personable, born male. I also had my mom co-sign my first business loan when I was the ripe old age of 20. What if mom's credit sucked too, or she had no credit?
I guess my point is, yes it's feasible to climb out of a hole, but with every advantage in the world (except actual money to start with), it took me 7 years and everything I've got to do it. What if I was born not so intelligent? Or black? Or not good looking or personable (Let's face it, these things affect your ability to sell, whether they should or not)? In the current system, I wouldn't stand a chance! In the 50's I could just get a factory job. My grandfather raised 3 kids as an ex-Army guy who worked in a 8 man tool and die factory until he retired in his 60's, raised 3 kids and his wife never had to work. Think that kind of story exists these days?
I am not so good looking, and I had bad credit, and I climbed way out of it. I also didn't need a cash investment for it.
My point is that if you (not you personally) believe you don't have a chance, you will never succeed. You need to believe you do and work toward it.
I don't at all believe in the defeatist attitude.
If the Bush tax cuts had worked as "planned," the economy should be thriving, no?
