Small Business Week at the White House: Economics for Dummies, But Mostly the Other Way Around
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Today President Obama addressed small business owners in the Rose Garden and offered the kind of economic wisdom that only someone who has never run a business anywhere except into the ground can impart.
These three quotes are just a sample of the kind of advice that those who own small businesses or aspire to do so might have missed out on:
Being a successful small business person isn’t just about collecting a profit or outperforming your competition. It’s about contributing to the success of this country’s economy.
Has a small business owner ever “contributed to the success of this country’s economy” by losing money and underperforming their competition? Of course it’s about collecting a profit and outperforming the competition!
Now, the government can lose money (it’s not theirs anyway) and underperform the competition (there isn’t any, and yet they still manage to underperform it) and still seemingly flourish, so it isn’t hard to see why career politicians can’t understand why the private sector can’t do the same.
And here’s another:
“This should not be an issue of big government versus small government. This is an issue that involves putting our government on the side of the small-business owners who create most of the jobs in this country.”
If you just heard a loud “clunk” it was Adam Smith hitting his head on the lid of his coffin.
“So you see, the bigger the government gets, the more we can help you and the economy!”
A huge, all-powerful and intrusive government can be a terrific boon to the job market. Look at China — they have several full-time jobs devoted just to picking tattered clothing out of tank treads (150 yuan a week and you get to keep the clothes!).
And the funniest for last…
I want to acknowledge a couple folks before we get started. First of all, we’ve got some special guests who are here from wonderful states. They are doing great work. We’re very, very proud of them — Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.
Oh man… Ann Coulter was right… Obama sure is a better comedian than a president!
Giving a talk to small business owners and heaping praise upon Jennifer Granholm is a little like addressing the people cleaning up the Gulf “ocean” oil spill and giving a shout-out to “my brilliant advisor on this issue, Captain Hazelwood.”
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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You got that right, Doug. Good grief this lot couldn’t use a cat box properly.
Easy to do when you write the rules of the game and have the guns on your side.
Ouch! Do you think he goes home at night and says, “Boy, Michelle, I really wowed ‘em down at the SBA conference! And those silly Tea Party people think I don’t understand economics! Ha!”
Jennifer Granholm is going to create 40000 Clean Energy Jobs in Michigan in the next decade (her own words).
No wonder Obama is “very, very proud of them — Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm!”
This moronic quote is so typically socialist. Everything done in business is about profit. It’s about making money. I might start off with a vision (I can make a better mousetrap) but the only way to produce that is to make money. And in my avarice, I just happen to create jobs and wealth, too.
That is, unless you’re running a “green” business (whatever that is) and you claim you’re in business to be altruistic. Which is why most are subsidized by tax money because they can’t make a enough profit to survive.
Read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.
The reason one is in business is to make a profit. Period. Does this knucklehead even know what the hell he’s talking about?
Michigan is in such a fine state with its businesses that everyone wants to live in Detroit. The housing market is doing so well there you can buy a house for 1$. The mean home price is down to $6000. Way to go big government!
No, knucklehead obama does NOT know what he is talking about.
This is why no Marxian Socialist should ever be allowed near the levers of power. Look but don’t touch.
It’s like putting a live machine gun in the hands of a three year old.
Mind-boggling but not surprising when you consider that Obama-Pelosi-Reid consider govt. health care mandates, carbon taxes, minimum wage increases and countless other regulations that strangle small business to be a source of innovation than contribute to economic growth. Much the same way that breaking a window will create a job for a glazier.
Powers: You really know how to stir the pot don’t you?
I wonder why they didn’t mention how the ‘health care reform’ law forcing businesses to fill out a 1099 form for EVERY single thing they sell to another company – will be such a great boost to our economy! /sarc Billions of more pages of 1099 data to be sent to the IRS for scrutiny probably requiring thousands of more IRS workers to process them.
Perfect illustration. And these are the people running our public schools and universities. Ouch! So much “Progressivism” to undo, so little time.
Do you remember when people called this imbecile “smart?”
Oh, right, some people still do.
I think you have to go all the way back to Andrew Johnson to find a POTUS this stupid. Even FDR was smarter than this knuckle-dragger. LBJ was, by comparison, an economic and military Genius.
God is Just. That’s what scares me. Look around and see what we have brought upon ourselves…
After Wile E. Coyote, what candidate do the Democrats foist on the drooling fools that vote for them?
Obowmao: (sees cat box) “Oh look Tootsie Rolls! I can never eat just one!”
Groan….this moron makes my head hurt, keeps me awake nights, and fills my days with dread. Need more aspirin.
I so want to see his grades from whichever school he claims to have attended. How do you ever get through that many years of school without taking one class in economics? Heck, a paper route would have taught him some basics.
Well, that’s a pretty tough test. Neither can my cats, after all.
Besides, at some point you’ve made enough.
Cheddar… that was fantastic.
LOL. ….Made enough for him, once he gets his cut of the “vig”.
Karl Marx would be so proud.
Well he worked at Baskin-Robbins as a teen, but I think he only learned that giving people a choice of flavors gives the consumer too much power. Better to have one flavor chosen by the government. If you don’t want “Big Block Cheese” flavor ice cream, it’s up to the government to put your competitors out of business…
My wife and I have been talking about starting some sort of internet business.
However, I think I’d rather talk to someone who has started such a business that actually has “collected a profit and outperformed the competition” instead of someone who hasn’t even run a lemonade stand.
Um, yes it is. That’s exactly what it is.
It’s not about collecting a profit?
Oh really? if “profit” doesn’t matter, I guess they won’t be missing those payroll taxes I remit every single month, regardless of whether or not my business has earned enough by the 15th to pay them.
If I don’t earn a profit and outperform my competition, there will be no jobs, no tax revenue, no whipping boy for the left.
Freaking idiots.
Hole-eee sheet … just about as stupid as it gets.
Oh wait, he was a community organizer. It all makes sense now.
In a related news story, the First Daughters set up a lemonade stand at the conference, and were incredibly successful selling Government Lemonade to the attendees, at $10,000 a glass.
“See? Nothing to it.” The President quipped.
Although some reports cited the drink of choice as Obama KoolAid.
Just some words and people I’ve been contemplating lately.
Karl Marx Marxist
Saul Alinsky Radical
Bowing Foreign Leaders
Michelle Obama Strap-on
Arugula
“Freedom isn’t free
No, there’s a hefty f-in’ fee
and if you don’t throw in your buck o’ five
who will?”
–’Freedom Isn’t Free’/Team America
One could say exactly the same about that idiot Diamond Jim Doyle who never saw a fee he couldn’t double in a year because he can’t control his urge to spend on leftist causes.
Please someone cuff this guy, read him his rights and haul him away. Pur Alice in Wonderland. Too much. Too much.
I still think we need literacy and civics certification (in English) before people are permitted to vote. The Littlest Marxist would never have been nominated much less elected.
Giving the ignorant and uneducated the opportunity to elect their representatives only invites rampant corruption of the system. Marxists are past masters at this game. Child’s play. Representative democracies assume some level of honesty for the system to work. Ours is totally corrupted.
Diamond “Job-Killer” Jim Doyle doing great work?? Great work if you call sucking up to teacher unions, raising taxes through the roof, running businesses out of state, corrupt dealings on choo-choo trains from Spain that no one will ride, etc. etc. Obama is an utter buffoon.
Sp, the oil slick isn’t an ecological disaster. It’s the government creating jobs!
mmmmm what about Kobe beef, dirty martinis, and that fancy 28 ingredient mole stuff? mmmmmm cheese Grommit, Wensleydale. Where is Cheddar? Cheddar?
Actually, yes, I think he does just that.
I weep.
We finally know why his college records are kept under wraps:
Economics 101 – F
Remedial Economics 100 – F
Money and Markets, What Are They? 100 – F
Math for Morons 001 – F
A few reality answers for the professor types who have never run anything other than their mouths. Profit for a company is next years growth amount. So if a company makes a profit of 100,000 dollars, the gubmint takes 32,500 and the state gubmint takes anothe 7000, so the company can grow by 60,000 next year or borrow money.
Profit is the difference between a business and a hobby. If you don’t make a profit doing something, it is a hobby. Just ask the IRS next time you want to claim deductions for your boat and scuba equipment because you formed an llc of joe blow’s scuba school.
Business is done to make a profit, and if that profit doesn’t outweigh the risk and headache factor of being in business, then entrepeneurs invest in stocks and bonds and clip coupons. This is what happened to Europe over the last 50 years, and it is what’s happening here today. The huge companies are diversifying and going overseas where they can make a profit, and the small companies are going out of business and investing in the huge companies.
Three letter word: No
Economics 101 – F
Remedial Economics 100 – F
Money and Markets, What Are They? 100 – F
Math for Morons 001 – F
You forgot “Redistribution of Wealth in Modern Times” – A+
Okay, I’m an econ/mathematics midget – I admit it freely. Reading these posts, you guys are scaring me – heh! Like Southsideironworks said #17 – I weep.
Oh, yeah. And I forgot:
Capitalism and other Evils – B+
American Exceptionalism – I (Course Dropped)
There now the statement is true…
Actually sounds Reaganesque now. I like it!
This guy worked for non-profits for too long. Does he know how stupid he sounds?
Big government is crushing us. Stupid government is crushing us faster. Who needs enemies when our own government hates us the most.
Day one of Intro to Business:
The number one goal of all businesses is to maximize the wealth of the shareholders. This is true for all for-profit entities from sole proprietors to large corporations.
Someone should check the Teacup-in-chief’s transcript to see if he took that class.
Aw, shucks. I am a small business owner and I wasn’t invited! I wonder if Obama would be comfortable in the same room with me. Well, I suppose not for long. I have a few items I’d like to discuss starting with his two social security numbers…
I know that when I make my business decisions, I first ask: “How will this make mankind better?”. I figure if I make saving mankind the first priority, profits (not too much though) will follow. It’s an animal spirits thing. You can save lots by not having to pay accountants.
You would have to be vetted and confirmed a marxist whacko. If you bluffed your way through that, if you ask any question other than “Mr President, how can you be so awesome?”, you will be unceremoniously escorted out by the Secret Service and charged with sedition. Dear Leader IS America mister!
FirstSkirt #42
Don’t get Scared – get Mad, then get Even at the next election.
And, tell anyone that will listen why!
Hey, Obama Admin, you’re all so tech savy, how about an Internet competition to solve the gulf oil leak. Put the awesome power of the U.S. entrepreneurial spirit to work.
My grandfather could have solved this problem in three days. He invented a device to make ship engines run quieter during World War II, making them harder to find by U-Boats. Probably saved thousands of lives.
The U.S. government kept the patent.
I weep not for myself, but for my son who has to grow up in this world surrounded by idiots and evil.
Why are there so many idiots in Washington? Because the rest of us are too smart to be associated with them. Therein lies the conundrum …
I’m sure the heads of Thomas Industries, Polaris, Government Motors, UAW Motors, MillerCoors, Republic Airways, et al, would disagree with the assessment that Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale). They’re just a few of those so unhappy with Doyle that he decided not to run for a third term rather than get whupped in November.
There are only three ways to get any relief from the anti-business attitude currently in Madison:
- Be heavily unionized (like Mercury Marine, which gave Fond du Lac County an excuse to raise taxes by twice what was necessary to buy Mercury Marine’s continued stay in Wisconsin)
- Service government (like Talgo)
- Donate heavily to Doyle and his fellow Democrats
Fortunately, that’s going to change come January, when the Dems are out of power.
WHY ARE 8 Republican Representatives supporting the $165 Billion Bailout for the UNIONS??????
Rep.Schock R-IL, Rep Brown-Waite R-FL, Rep Emerson R-MO, Rep Roskam R-IL, Rep Latourette R-OH, Rep. McCotter R-MI, Rep Tiberi R-OH, Rep Murphy R-PA
I ran a business for 6 years – a dollar store, and in my experience, 98% of the public has no concept of anything regarding a for-profit operation.
For the most part, my customers thought I paid next to nothing for my products and was able to keep all the money they gave me. When I told them that on average, I earned 10 cents for every dollar I sold and that this amount excluded any costs assocaited with product damage/loss/returns or unforseen expenses, very few of them believed me.
When I explained that the average cost of each item was $0.65 and that I had to pay $72,000 per year just to operate and keep the store open for business, in essence meaning that I had to sell 205,000 items ($72,000 divided by $0.35) before I was able to start paying myself and earn a profit, they thought I was just exaggerating.
I closed my business down when the government raised the minimum wage to $9.75 (Ontario, Canada) and my employees were making about the same as I was. I realized I was better off working for someone else than trying to make it on my own. Without profit and therefore without incentives, you have no businesses.
Since you guys been whacking the heck out of the rest of the quotes – I go for this one:
BIG government, by definition, ONLY supports BIG business!
ONLY BIG well connected business get the ‘connected’ breaks. Only the BIG businesses have labor unions clammoring for government bailout gifts.
ONLY BIG business has the time to fill out all of the paperwork required by big government regulations.
And of course, as any toy maker can attest, ONLY BIG business has the deep pockets to pay for all of the testing required by BIG government rules designed to STIFLE and TERMINATE small competition!
Yeah, let’s put our hands together for Granholm. Under her astute leadership, Michigan is the Unemployment Champ of the Country!
#24 – KLADY: I hear you loud and clear–making my impact in my little corner of the world. People actually come in to my garage to see my display/collection of Obeyme and Congressional Dem bumper stickers and Tea Party memorabilia criticizing this current administration and Congress. (I should charge admission). I have already converted a guy up the street from his nefarious liberal ways. I believe some justice will be seen in November.
Some time ago, former Sen. George McGovern (lefty Dem) revealed that after he retired from politics, he tried to establish a bed-and-breakfast somewhere in New England. It flopped, partly because of high taxes! He admitted that if he had had any business experience before joining the Senate, he wouldn’t have supported many of the tax increases that he voted for. I wonder if Obama would ever learn that lesson…
That was rhetorical, right Red?
It’s actually classic fascism: business is to be subordinated to the service of the state. He’s really coming right out and saying it.