No wonder we feel like

drops in the bucket

with all this

trickle-down spending!

I mean where do we business owner types get our ideas? Sometimes from bits and pieces of what others say and do, and sometimes from opportunities that emerge or smack us in the mouth when we’re not looking. The steady bombardment of media drivel and twisted reports of government greatness can make us stop in our tracks.

We start to think, hey, maybe things aren’t so bad after all. Maybe gas prices will stand still and small business tax incentives for job creation and innovation will actually start to move forward. Maybe there’s more spending power in my bank account than I thought. Maybe tomorrow it will start raining ducks! Maybe I should have hope.

Hope. Yeah, well, that doesn’t accomplish anything. So let’s go back to the trickling action and see what we can learn

From the White House to the State House to the County Seat to the Town Hall, look and learn from all the mindless trickle-down spending muscle-flexing.

I’ve seen people in my town climbing through dumpsters for food scraps, and the mayor and council decide to spend a thousand bucks to buy a town logo and open a mega-million-dollar floodgate of “revitalization.”

Hey, why not? The White House thinks it needs to buy votes so it prints a few million and sends it to the States. The State people think it’s a great thing and that the counties will love them for passing along some of the dough to “green up” the place. The county guys want the poverty-stricken town’s votes, so the town gets a thousand bucks.

The money is spent on a new logo for the town. Next, of course, will be “beautification teams” and landscapers and architects and engineers and street widening and off-street parking and bigger more complicated infrastructure — more fire, police, EMTs, water, electric, sewerage.

But, hey, why not? Easy come, easy go. Spend it now.

Brick walks and old-fashioned looking gaslight fixtures? Go for it. Have fun! After all, you can’t take it with you. Besides, it will spruce up the boarded-up places with broken windows. And why be selfish. Think of your grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Plan ahead for future generations. Spend. So what if the revitalization isn’t needed. Do it anyway. It’ll create jobs, and we need jobs. What does it matter that nobody much cares about beautifying the town except two struggling over-priced restaurants. No one can afford the gas to drive through here anyway.

Oh, and take a guess where that revitalization money will come from. 

There you go. Consider yourself trickled down to! How does that feel? Seems like you need deep pockets and no sense of reality to be successful in politics. Just slap backs, pass out money, and make everything green. “I’ve always wanted a logo” the mayor explained as he railroaded the town council vote through.

Well, who knows? Maybe that’s the kind of thinking we need. A new $1,000 logo for a town where food scavenging and foreclosures and unemployment are almost more the rule than the exception. 

And are you as lucky as we are? I mean we’ve already got mandatory recycling services that we’re forced to pay for even if we want to do our own recycle sorting and transporting. I am NOT badmouthing recycling. I simply want the choice to do my own.

Don’t you just love mandatory stuff?

Well, that should certainly wrap up all the country’s economical and terrorist and natural disaster and devaluation and plummeting national image in one neat tidy package. Isn’t it just exactly the way you would deal with these kinds of problems in your own business?

No?

Oh, right, you know better than to tax and spend

and ignore others’ needs.

Hmmmm. How come you know all that

and our great leadership hasn’t a clue?

Think about it. You have ’til November 6, 2012. Nineteen months to get UNtrickled. Y’think? Well, there ARE 30 million small business owners being trickled on

 . . . as you read this.

Thought for the day: Strength in numbers!

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Well, it’s here:  Thanksgiving,

and I just surpassed 500 posts! 

     Now you not may think much of either of these milestones, but suffice it to say about the first of them that I do love turkey (in spite of certain extremist political PETA types efforts to convince us of inhumane turkey treatment!), and I am looking forward to my plateful tomorrow.

     The 500 blog posts?  I think of it as being like a baseball player reaching 500 career errors (because I’ve learned something from every post and miscue!), and am looking forward to my next post (which THIS week only will be on Friday instead of Thanksgiving Thursday!).

     Actually, I never thought  I’d find anything as challenging and rewarding at the same time as writing a daily blog.  It’s challenging because I rarely know where the inspiration is going to come from ’til I’m staring at the blank screen like a post-surgical labotomy patient.

     The only sad part  is tangled up in the “rewarding” deal which unfortunately depends on visits and comments instead of dollars … but this is about to change: Big News Coming in January! 

     And the discipline involved?  I’d rather do push-ups.  The nightly time crunch and rapidly advancing bedtime with a take-out-the-dogs thing sandwiched in between doesn’t do much for my heart rate when all I’ve figured out is some dumb headline that I’ll inevitably scrap and redo anyway.

     I know, it’s “Welcome to the journalist’s world!”  God bless ‘em, I really admire the talented few writers who can pump out daily newspaper features that educate, inform and entertain . . . night after night… all 3 of ’em! [When did “reporting” get swallowed up by “opinionating”?] 

     Anyway, enough of me spamming your brain.  All I really want to say today is thank you. 

     My blog visitors have grown  from a weekly count-on-one-hand number nineteen months ago, to a consistent few thousand-and-growing-steadily every single night. [ HA! And you thought you were the only one dumb enough to be reading these?]  

     People tell me they laugh and they learn.  Who, really, could ask for more? 

     I am so grateful.  I appreciate every time you stop by and every new person you send along to visit . . . and every laugh.  YOU are my adrenaline. 

     Have a safe, peaceful and happy Thanksgiving  wherever you are. 

     Very special personal thank you’s  from me to Michael Infusino for your skillful, good-natured tech support … to Andrew Jackson for a wonderfully-growing strategic alliance.

     Thank you for all the wonderful unsolicited love — to my children: Haley, Christopher, and Melissa; — to my grandchildren: Talley, Dylan, and Gwyn; — to some very special relatives: Marian, Dorothy, Tim, Victoria, Harrison, Danielle, Timmy, Chris, and Rick; — and to my two dogs: Barnegat and Tuckerton.  All of you have made such a difference in my life; I am forever grateful for your support and respect. 

     Most of all, thank you Kathy, for sticking by me through thick and thin, and for always letting me stay glued to my keyboard without complaining when I know I should be doing chores.  You deliver fun and joy and love and caring to my life’s front door every day.  You give me purpose.  I love you!    

     Oh, and remember our troops out there, will you?  Their courage, sacrifices and vigilance make this special day and all the freedoms we enjoy possible. 

Thank YOU!  Hal    

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