General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Five questions that no one ever asks Republicans: [View all]1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)(though he denies it), rightwing, christian, conservative small business owning family friend. During our family outings, we inevitably stumble into political decisions ... he HATES the government, especially the Federal government (even though 90% of his business can be traced to Stimulus dollars) and he HATES, HATES, HATES President Obama.
My friend's most frequent complaints are the typical fox-fare ... taxes are too high, there are too many regulations and there is too much "economic uncertainty", these three things all combine to stop businesses from job creating.
My stock responses are to ask: "Name one regulation that has prevented you from hiring the workers you need to complete a job? What level of tax cuts would encourage you to hire someone when you don't have the jobs to keep your current crew busy? And, wouldn't that economic uncertainty be resolved if the gop would just gave President Obama everything he wants ... Wouldn't you be able to plan knowing that this policy or that policy was going to go into effect, whether you agree with the policy or not?"
This usually results in a story about some local government bureaucrat that held his company to the precise letter of some obscure regulation. Though I suspect that the stories are either, untrue, or more likely the bureaucrats response to my friend's "I'm soooo much smarter than you, you lowly government worker" attitude, I just remind him that he still hasn't answered the job creation question.
That usually results in his telling more stories, more loudly.
I have concluded that critical thinking skills are far less important to the operation of a small business than a marketable skill and self-delusion.