My Response to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters

This is a great letter, and it is real.


To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job.

What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. Of course, as your employer, I am forbidden to tell you whom to vote for - it is against the law to discriminate based on political affiliation, race, creed, religion, etc.

Please vote for who you think will serve your interests the best. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interest.First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a backstory.

This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You saw my big home at last years Christmas party. I'm sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what you don't see is the back story.

I started this company 12 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3years. My entire living space was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of RamenPride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline,and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's.

My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, mymoney, and my life into a business --- with a vision that eventually, some day,I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leaveat 5 PM, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, **, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to me like a 1 day old baby.

You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I've made. Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail out all the people who didn't.

The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately,the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check?

Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. The fact is, if I deducted(Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don't understand .. to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees,and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the mud of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine.

Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep. So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company,my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem anymore. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire.

You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

While tax cuts to 95% of America sounds great on paper, don't forget the back story: If there is no job, there is no income to tax. A tax cut on zero dollars is zero. So, when you make decision to vote, ask yourself, who understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of saving your job. While the media wants to tell you "It's the economy Stupid" I'm telling you it isn't.

If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the Constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me in the South Caribbean sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worrya bout.

Signed, Your boss,
Michael A. Crowley, PE
Crowley, Crisp & Associates, Inc.
Professional Engineers

Thanks to Mike Trani for this!

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:35 PM

    This 'real' letter is 2 years+ old and may not be as real as you would think:

    http://www.chrismartenson.com/forum/real-letter-ceo-his-employers/11293

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Anonymous:
    You've missed the point. The letter offers strikingly candid insight that might help those who feel inclined to cry out that "the government should bail out the people next" to see the real picture.
    I think the author of the letter makes several excellent points, and don't much care myself whether or not he is or isn't the "real" Mr. Crowley.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @kwyjibo,
    The economy crashed due to the stupidity of people in Congress who passed legislation that allowed us to create 27 million (half the market) bad housing loans, not because of "heinous greed". Get your facts straight and study some basic economics before you comment with such utter bullshit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't you think that reality teaches us that other models of economy work better that American model? (Examples: Germany, Australia, Sweden, Israel)

    All of these countries enjoy first world technological export driven economies with low unemployment and relatively high growth. And they are not negatively affected by higher taxes and many social programs including free universal health care.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Mikhail,
    Your view of the world is pretty rosy, there! What has really happened in Europe is that worker productivity was not high enough to support all the government provided services, and they borrowed to the hilt to keep providing them. Now you've go an economic catastrophe. No such thing as a free lunch, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You lumping Europe into one entity but in reality it over 20 different countries some have problems but other do not. I gave you examples of specific countries (Not all of them in Europe by the way) that performing better than USA, try looking into this you will be surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Mikhail,

    I don't doubt that's true, but if you are using the Euro as your currency you share the problem with everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I won't comment on the political side, or the pretty obvious hostaging of the workforce, but the whole "I (boss) did my sacrifices and you (employees) didn't/don't" chant immediately reminded me this:
    http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080301/how-hard-could-it-be-lessons-i-learned-in-the-army.html

    Two sides and all that...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous5:55 PM

    Politicians also worked very hard to accumulate all this debt. Look at http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/07/28/us/20110728_defaultqa_graphic.html?ref=politics and you'll know how to vote.

    The sad irony is that people that don't want to reimburse the debt today through taxes were applauding like crazy when it was time to waste billions at war.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous12:11 AM

    @mikhail:
    Israel's economy was a basket case until it started to move away from socialism. every liberalization was clearly documented to effect a positive uptick in the economy.

    as to credit bubble, in israel there is no government sponsored junk mortgage. most are around 50%, so the buyer has skin in the game.

    as to socialized medicine, there has been a steady, marked decrease in doctors, to the point that israel is now considering importing doctors?! everyone that wants decent care goes to a private doctor.

    no one works for free, anywhere, for any length of time, not even you mikhail....

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FIREFOX / IE Word-Wrap, Word-Break, TABLES FIX

Some observations on Script Callbacks, "AJAX", "ATLAS" "AHAB" and where it's all going.

IE7 - Vista: "Internet Explorer has stopped Working"