I am an independent entrepreneur. Always have been. Last job I had working for someone was when I was 22 and that was about a 6 month gig as a bartender. It is not easy to be an entrepreneur, but it teaches you how to go “kill dinner” so to speak. It teaches you how not to be dependent on the management of some random firm. So when I see this article I get steamed. An excerpt:

When General Motors, the biggest employer in town, laid off 400 workers in December, it was like a boulder falling into a very small pond. April and Rick Allison lost their jobs stamping out doors and other car parts. They plan to leave to find work. Their departure means their landlord, Angelo Sorrenti, is worried about his business, so he’s holding off buying a new pickup. That hurts Graham’s Auto Mall, which has laid off sales manager Steve Brown. Now Brown can’t make his regular contribution to the United Way. The United Way has reduced donations to charities such as Friendly House’s after-school and summer program for low-income children. Friendly House is increasing its summer day camp fees. Single mom Pamela Hall worries if that keeps up, her 9-year-old daughter Courtney will have to stay home. The struggles facing the people of Ontario and its neighboring communities show how the 400 layoffs ripple far beyond the gates of the GM plant, where 860 people still work. The stories reveal how job losses at a plant tear the web that binds the workers and their neighbors. And Ontario is just one of 12 cities facing the bleak prospect that its GM plant will shut down in the next two years.

My first response? When is the media going to stop with this nonsense that the economic pain of Midwest-union-car-workers is somehow worse than anyone else out of a job and or money? More questions and thoughts:

1. Why do I need to care about GM? What is so damn important about an impotent company run into the ground? Happens all the time across all businesses.

2. Why is the emphasis on “work” as opposed to making money? For example, the article says, “They plan to leave to find work.” It sounds so helpless. Why is there a “you are already dead” tone in the writing?

3. How did the phrase “job losses at a plant” supplant the phrase “entrepreneur”? It sure has, but why? Once again, it sounds so hopeless. These people are being presented as simpletons unable to get by since the “state” (read: GM) has gone away. It’s like an old Twilight Zone episode with big brother as all knowing and all caring.

4. I note the obligatory tearjerker talk of the United Way and Friendly House. Everyone knows the economy has changed so what are we going to do? Look fondly back on an artificial bubble and orgy of debt that funded charities? So how does it make you feel that in small town Ohio charities have less money? I am sure you feel exactly how this weenie reporter thought you would feel…sad. Great, now what?

Let me be blunt about this writing at USA Today and the tone taken: it is done on purpose. That article reads like an MBA research paper. Every word seems chosen. What do I mean? That article was written to appeal to the very people presented in the article. It is written for people in dire straits. Where is the language about digging out? Where is the language that says the entire “worker” model is flawed beyond reason? Where is the language that talks about what a great opportunity being laid off from a job “stamping doors” can present? That language is not there as it would sell less papers plain and simple.

Look, I am not saying this is easy, but America needs to get away from worshiping manufacturing jobs. America needs to find a more astute and intelligent job force for the years to come. Maybe, just maybe, if the country did not spend so much time at Fat Burger or so much time at the mall buying trinket this and trinket that, or watching endless American Idol bubble gum vomit, just maybe we might be forced to work smarter. Work smarter you complain? Yes, work smarter. Smart work builds strength, character and discipline. Just trusting that the job “working for the man” would be there was always a fatally flawed strategy. So spare me the article lamenting yesteryear. It is time for sucking it up and kicking butt, not crying in spilled milk.

Why did people bank with a slime outfit like IndyMac? Real simple. They thought they could get higher interest rates on their accounts. They did not think that the oh so sweet high interest rates indicated more risk:

I watched this show yesterday. A great “interchange” from it:

CHUCK COLLINS, CO-FOUNDER, WEALTH FOR THE COMMON GOOD: Yep. I think this is an important issue for a lot of our Wealth For The Common Good members. They feel it’s a small price to pay for a much broader health insurance that will cover those 50 million people that have no health insurance.

VELSHI: A matter of interest, are there a lot of your Common Good members who would be subject to the tax?

COLLINS: Absolutely. We have an online petition. We’re asking people who will pay the tax, who want to reverse the Bush tax cuts of the last 10 years, and to make those investments in health care and energy independence. These are folks who are part of, I think, a silent majority –

VELSHI: Let me just ask you again. Because there is no – hang on a second. There’s no majority of people who would be subject to this tax. It’s a very small portion of people.

COLLINS: That’s right.

VELSHI: Are there members of yours, who would be subject to these types of proposals about taxing people who earn over $250,000 each, or $350,000 as a couple.

COLLINS: Yes.

VELSHI: Who would say I would be willing to do that?

COLLINS: Yes, so we have hundreds of people who have signed on to this public petition and more are signing on and we’re gathering that right now. What I was saying is the silent majority of people who will pay this tax actually don’t resent it. I mean, this will sound strange. But this is a group — those of us in the top 1 percent, have got a $700 billion tax cut, thanks to George Bush. Many us didn’t ask for it. Many of us were embarrassed to be getting tax cuts while other members of our country were going to war and making enormous sacrifices. This is a time of national sacrifice. We urgently need to address the health care situation.

ROMANS: Right. Dan Mitchell from CATO Institute, you disagree. There are some on the right and libertarians who are saying, like, look, this smacks of redistribution of wealth. This smacks of socialism. Taking from one part of the society to pay — although you could argue the entire tax code does.

VELSHI: Yes, well, the taxes exist.

ROMANS: But what do you think about this, about taxing the rich for health care?

DAN MITCHELL, CATO INSTITUTE: Well, it’s almost beyond parody to listen to someone who inherited a lot of money to say let’s tax the rich. This is pulling up the ladder so that other people can’t become rich. As far as I’m concerned, what we need to focus on is what are the policies that are going to make America more prosperous. And going down this path to a 1970-style tax and spend big government is a recipe to make our economy more like France. If taxing the so-called rich was such successful policy why is America so much richer than France? We definitely do not want to punish success in this country. I want more rich people. I don’t want fewer rich people. And I certainly don’t want people who inherited wealth trying to stop middle class people from climbing the economic ladder.

ROMANS: Chuck, you inherited — how did you inherit your money? He’s talking about your inherited wealth. Just tell us quickly how you inherited your money.

COLLINS: I’m the great grandson of Oscar Mayer. But I should say a lot of our Wealth For The Common Good members are entrepreneurs. There are people like Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, Warren Buffett, others, who are entrepreneurs. They don’t resent capitalism. They love this country. They love the amazing system for wealth creation. We also want to encourage wealth in creation. What we believe is a healthy capitalism has a healthy safety net. And if we make — we have long overdue investments not just in health care, but education, energy independence. If we want to be a competitive country, if we want to have the next generation of millionaires and billionaires come up the ladder, and come from all the walks of society, we need to make these long overdue investments. Where is the money going to come from? Where else is the money going to come from?

From the news reports:

Of all the statistics pouring into the White House every day, top economic adviser Larry Summers highlighted one Friday to make his case that the economic free-fall has ended. The number of people searching for the term ‘economic depression’ on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said. Searches for the term were up four-fold when the recession deepened in the earlier part of the year, and the recent shift goes to show consumer confidence is higher, Summers told the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

I have a very simple program for going broke. Follow this logic and its guaranteed. Nothing like getting in front of the AARP union of old folks and threatening them with spending money to not go broke. Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya…

An excerpt from Salem Abraham in my film “Broke”:

Washington’s Dilemma is not pretty.

A film review of “Broke”:

“Michael Covel’s “Broke:The New American Dream” is an enlightening documentary. While somber at times, it does a great job not only highlighting who is to blame for today’s financial collapse, but more importantly encourages individuals to take personal responsibility over their own finances. The comparisons to poker – highlighted by some of today’s top players – shows how using probability, not having a big ego, and knowing how to cut your losses is the key to investing”
- Jordan Kimmel
Market Strategist
National Securities