Small business owners

[petmoosie]

I am hearing about proposed tax rates and small businesses at risk under Obama.

The tax rates as proposed don't endanger as many small businesses as claimed. See this. The number of small businesses in the US is greatly exaggerated. Most are not self-supporting.

The layoffs of the '80s and early '90s made going into business for yourself a very attractive idea for job security and flexibility. A lot of the sideline small businesses are someone's dream of being free of "the man". Tax rates that kick in at $200,000 are not going to stop people from dreaming that.

Now, the financial bailout, the changes in state taxes with the recession, and the general poor state of the economy will make more of these sidelines unprofitable. There will be fewer small businesses (whether self-supporting or not) in the next four years. But the cause of that is not this presidential election.

This is sparked by comments from someone who runs a NASCAR racing team---as their full-time job. The carbon emissions alone are blowing my mind--but that is a subject for another post.

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Heh - an acquaintance on my LJ posted last night about how awful Obama's tax plan was, how his job is going to be taxed out of existence, and how he won't be able to afford his plane any more.

This is why he and I will never agree about politics. I was talking about basic rights like freedom of religion and access to health care, and he is worried about his plane.

[petmoosie.livejournal.com]

fear of poverty is a powerful motivator. And some people will keep their luxuries much longer than is sensible when trying to deal with a falling economy.

I think we as a country have lived beyond our means for a while and eaten some of our seed corn. The next few years are not going to be times for luxuries and may require higher taxes anyway. But I think we need to rebuild and the right leader has been chosen for that.