MORON (More On) VAT Tax , the Economy and Turning Lemons into Lemonade – OPINION
April 21, 2010
As I sit in Realtors’ sales meetings, I hear all this talk about how to maximize a down market. It’s like settling for mediocrity as if it’s noble to aim lower. Short sales are becoming the new “money making” thing. It’s hard work, but there’s money to be made doing it.
And after all, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth making a profit at it, right? You wouldn’t think so to hear some liberals talk. And what amazes me is the number of San Francisco Realtors who really think this administration and our Congress is doing a good job while the rest of us in the outlying areas are being put out of business.
Why do they support him? Because the really bad market hasn’t hit them yet. Yes, San Francisco sales are down, but that has happened in other years. No big deal. So again it’s a case of, “it’s all about me.” It’s selfish and it’s un-American. Being economically naive, they don’t realize that what Obama and his Democrat pals in Congress are doing and planning on doing is going to take us into that double dip recession experts have been talking about. Just because it’s not bad yet doesn’t mean it can’t get that way… and fast!
Ask me if big government and over-regulation are bad, I say yes they are. But the market is very dynamic. Eventually it finds equilibrium. Regulators have put all sorts of restrictions on business for years. Usually, once things calm down, the business figures out a way to get back to doing business. When things are stable, business owners can make plans even if the government has made bad decisions and sticks with them.
But what has happened during this administration is the constant changing of rules so that, in this chaos, none of the businesses have a chance to regroup and figure out how to turn that profit. With new Health Care regulations, Cap and Trade around the corner and a VAT tax on the horizon (even though the Senate passed a resolution against it), we could be in big trouble because businesses can’t make plans. It’s like building a house on shifting sand. It can’t be done.
Think of it. A national sales tax at every level of production, in addition to the ones already in effect, will drive up costs for everyone. After all, to stay in business, a company has to have a profit to be a going concern. A national sales tax of 0.05% doesn’t sound like much until you start talking about really big numbers. And we all know that just as compound interest can make us really rich, so can compound taxes can make us really poor.
If this bunch of politicians were purposely trying to send us into a depression, they are doing all the right things. Raising taxes during a recession will only stagnate our economy and could possibly cause it to fail. More businesses will lay people off because it will be just too expensive to keep them with the shrinking margins. Other businesses will give up and go under creating new unemployment. With people out of work, unable to pay their mortgages and property taxes, foreclosures will increase dramatically.
Short sales might be a new “industry” for Realtors, the lemonade made from lemons in this case. But what if we prefer caviar? More on this later.
FedUpEditor
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