Having been self-employed now for over 30 yrs I totally agree with everything stated in the following
opinion piece. The satisfaction is immense! Much Aloha, Donna
June 10, 2012
American Thinker
By Dera Enochson
What does it mean to be a business owner today in America? It means you take all the risk, put in all the effort. In return, you get the trophy of supporting all the people able to fill out paperwork, giving them entitlements and endless excuses to destroy their own destiny, along with ours.
My husband and I took a big risk eight years ago. We took all our money and invested in ourselves. We started our own business, and we put 10- to 15-hour days in, seven days a week, in order to make it a success...for eight years...nonstop...with no vacations...or even weekends off. Believe me: plenty of my friends thought this was foolish on our part. We missed out on many opportunities for fun. Why?
Because that is what successful Americans do. They work and work, to create something no one else has created before them. We also employ decent, hardworking people, who pay their taxes and contribute to society. These good people and members of society also function side by side with us as piggy banks for those who choose not to work.
We have seen repeatedly that people will choose unemployment even when handed a perfectly good job. My staff has had the phone conversations with people when we tried to hire them for $20 an hour. Our jobs require simple selling skills that can be honed anywhere and do not require even a high school diploma. We do ask that they dress in proper business attire and speak respectfully and acceptably to clients, but we do not ask for proof of education. We are also willing to train viable candidates for these positions. We have been turned down repeatedly when offering jobs to people who say they have found out that working violates their unemployment checks.
Darn right, it does! And before you decide that the job must be unacceptable for most, let me tell you that it is working in an elegant store with perfectly polite people and customers, with air-conditioning and heat aplenty, along with delicious food items within footsteps. Not exactly as hard as working in a mineshaft, or other truly tough jobs that people do every day.
When will one of our presidential candidates get it right? Stick up for the working people of America. Whether we are rich now, or hoping to become rich, that is America's promise. In our country, you get a fighting chance to be what you want to be. It's a fighting chance, not a handout. Not everyone will achieve his or her dreams. But you have the chance to do it. It requires extra effort.
Like many business owners, I went to public schools for my own education -- the same public education available to anyone in this country. We did nothing that any other ordinary citizen of American is deprived of the opportunity to do. We put in ridiculous hours of hard work. Why then must we support an endless stream of non-workers with the hours of my life we burned away to create a living and something for our children? And of course, when we die, the government gets to take half of all that hard-earned (previously taxed) money again.
We are created equal. When I was young, there were plenty of people who were convinced that I would not do anything significant with my life. It was voiced to me regularly as a young adult. Somehow I didn't believe that -- and that is exactly what the magic of the American spirit is all about.
It is time for a candidate who will show us all the way to succeed. Not cringe and hide from any discussion of wealth and opportunity. Wealth and opportunity are the name of the game, and we all want it! My company genuinely wants to see our employees move on to bigger and better things, either within our company or at another company if they move on. We make sure they have the skills to do that so they can create a better life for themselves.
Plenty of business owners all over the U.S. are doing the same thing. That should be the same attitude we see in our government. Instead, they cringe at any mention of wealth and go back to discussing entitlements. Entitlements are the path to destruction and despair. Let's not pretend any different any longer. We are not different sets of victims, all meant for self-destruction, poverty, and despair without government handouts. We are creating a world of co-dependent people scared to find out how powerful they can be if they only try.
And don't even get me started on presidential vacations. If I can go eight years without one, then they can, too. I understand a weekend or two off when you have a high-tension job. Certainly most of us business owners can't afford that ourselves, but we wouldn't begrudge it of our leader. However, I'd like to see our president treat this job with a little respect. Using up ten year's worth of vacation time while the country crumbles around you isn't inspirational. It smacks of that lack of respect created by the entitlement mentality, too! And I guess I know who is paying for that sense of entitlement...my fellow workers.
We have made this country great. Now stick up for us and our country, and give us someone we can vote for easily because we know he or she is cheering for success for all of us.
