"The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves!"

It's a very rainy Friday in Atlanta. It reflects the mood many small business owners feel about the "stimulus plan" which includes a new 42 percent tax rate on couples making $250,000 and more. That's just INCOME TAX folks, not including the sales tax you pay, ad valorem tax, property tax, etc. "Let's take the money from the rich folks! They deserve it!" I have sacrificed, worked hard, went into astronomical debt and have faced and fought my fears to get my business going. Many people wouldn't bother to work this hard! They will now be happy to have the government take money from the hard workers and achievers so that their lives will be easier. There will be a point where the achievers will throw up their hands and say "Why bother?" I'm busting my butt to put a flat screen tv in these underachievers' homes while I still have my 15 year-old 27" tv and a 12-year old car! Then they will close their businesses and many more people will be on the government dole. But wait! There's more! There won't be any money for the government to give these people, because all those "wealthy rich lucky people" will not be working their butts off to get it taken away from them!
There's a radio ad I have been hearing lately, and it depicts a woman remarking to her co-worker about the sack lunch he brought from home. He responds "Yeah, I'm saving $5 a day bringing my own sandwich! That's $25 a week! In a year I've saved $1200!" Well, I'd like to reveal the flip side to that story--It's of a cafe owner laying off 3 more employees. "Sorry I have to do this, but because our business is down now that Joe and all his friends are brown-bagging it--there's not enough business to pay you all" So there are more people out of work! After 9-11, we all worked hard to make sure we supported each other so that the terrorists couldn't disrupt the flow of Capitalism. Now we are all running and hiding our money because we are freaking out. We didn't need terrorists to do it--we did it all ourselves!