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Originally Posted by Highwaylizard
To an extent I agree. I started my own business and worked my a$$ nearly to death to get to where I am now. I have suffered through heat stroke, physical exhaustion, lived less than a bum in the beginning, foregone all the luxuries that so many have come to take for granted, worked when I was so sick I had to vomit behind the bushes, and saved and reinvested every penny I made in the beginning.
Now I am several years ahead on my mortgage, I live in a modest house, I drive a nice truck, my bills are paid, and I am actually getting ready to put money away for retirement. I work eight months a year and take the winters off. I take my family to the Keys for two months each winter.
I still shop at Goodwill for my clothes and rarely go out to eat. I have hired and fired more than sixty employees in the past four years. I do not tolerate laziness or belligerence. I have two excellent employees that I am selling the business to who appreciate the hard work that goes into building and maintaining a business. In this respect I am very fortunate. No matter what happens at the hands of our tyrannical government I would not take it out on my employees.
Even so, the taxes are overwhelming. I find it rather queer that as some one who has made the effort to better myself, contribute to the local economy, perform charitable work on a weekly basis, have performed emergency storm damage clean-ups and rescues (paying my employees for their labor and covering my operating costs for these acts of community involvement out of my own pocket while not realizing even a break even - let alone a profit) that I am penalized by higher taxes.
The level to which I am disgusted by the requirement that I contribute to bailing out irresponsible, lazy, criminal, incompetent organizations is ineffable. The bailouts are a prolonging of the inevitable. Our economy is predicated upon an unsustainable model that has reached its ultimate terminal point.
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Solid thoughts. I fear that too many people take their jobs for granted.
Like you, I've sacrificed a lot to build my business - 8 years of 60-80 hour work weeks. My friends don't see or respect the hard work it takes to be self-made. They are jealous of my accomplishments and successes because by the age of 26 I had purchased 4 homes, and maintained a 1M dollar residence and a vacation home on the water. They absolutely can't fathom the stress I've endured to build a business based upon ethics and integrity. I earn many times over what they do and they only see the nice "Mercedes in the parking lot". I actually will turn 30 this year and sold the Mercedes in 2007
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Ever calculate what you'd make if you worked 80 hours per week? First 40 - base pay, second 40 @ time and a half. Do the math. CRAZY.
But there's more to living than work. Unfortunately though, the boats I like don't run on wind and even it they did, I can't leave my one year old child with special needs unattended.