“Government should act like my assistant, not my boss.” - Granite Grok

“Government should act like my assistant, not my boss.”

This is just as valid now as when I first stumbled across it back on 5/26/2011; the money graph (emphasis mine):

“I ask him what, precisely, he thinks is the proper role of government as it relates to business.

Invisible,” he says. “I know there are things the government has to do. But they need to find a way to do them without people like me having to bump into a new regulation every time we turn a corner.” He reflects for a moment, then finds the analogy he seeks. “Government should act like my assistant, not my boss.”

Indeed.  The previous part of the post talked about the uncertainty that Big Government keeps creating – why the middle sized business owner won’t hire new employees, won’t expand to new locations, what kinds of regulations are going to be forced upon him (including those that make the claim “Oh, this will be less expensive for you to do it this way over the long term”).  In fact, he brought up something that I used to think about all the time when I used to sign the front of my payroll checks (going to employees): 

“I don’t understand why Washington does this to us,” he resumes. By “us,” he means people who run businesses of less- than-Fortune-500 size. He tells me that it doesn’t much matter which party is in office. Every change of power means a whole new set of rules to which he and those like him must respond. ‘‘I don’t understand,” he continues, “why Washington won’t just get out of our way and let us hire.”

I used to run into this all the time.  At one time, running our small daycare, I felt that the government agency that observed and regulated us WAS trying to be helpful, especially during our start up period.  “Don’t forget about this, how about doing it this way, did you know about this regulation?” was the norm – not to give us a write up but to give guidance to be in compliance and that as long as the item was taken care of by the next visit, thumbs up (and we made sure to make it so – after all, least demerits was a competitive edge we could boast about to newly trusting parents).  Then, as the biz guy relates, a Dem gov took over and the whole atmosphere changed – instead of being viewed as folks needing a bit of help, we became the enemy overnight.  ow, every little regulation meant a demerit (including the famous getting dinged for not having a thermometer in the top freezer of a refrigerator that we weren’t using).

One model was my assistant, the latter was that of a boss.  And under the Obama Administration, it is clear that they RELISH that model in telling small biz and their owners “nice business you have there, shame if something will happen to it”.  It really does seem that the current regulators and legislators not only look at companies at mere extensions of Government, they are actively, and in a fascist fashion, trying to do exactly that.

And then they wonder why owners won’t hire?  Why should they – I certainly wouldn’t.  In fact, I am doubtful that under the present regimes (national and here in NH) that I would want to bother – I would want to run and grow my business instead of having to spend lots of time figuring out how not to get fined or sued by Government because of a lack of paperwork I could figure out or something being 2″ out of what from some regulation.  Instead of being viewed as an ATM every time I wrote a tax check, I’d rather (and used to!) think “how many more folks could I hire for that amount of money to expand??”)

Government tells us what energy sources we should use, what foods we can buy, the cars available to us, what toilets we can buy, even the lightbulbs.  In each and every nook, we are TOLD what we can do.  “Government should act like my assistant, not my boss.” – remember, my assistant is someone who stays in the background and gets the right things done on my behalf.  Stays rather quiet unless I ask for an opinion or for something to be done.  In essence, HELPFUL and not getting in the way.  Let’s me run my business – instead of being told how to run it.

If I wanted a boss while being an entrepreneur, I’d change it up such that I’d only be signing the back of the payroll check.  Instead now, it seems that as in private life or more, the owners aren’t anymore in many degrees.

 

 

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