Why I'm Not Hiring
Employing Sally costs plenty too. My company has to write checks for $74,000 so Sally can receive her nominal $59,000 in base pay. Health insurance is a big, added cost: While Sally pays nearly $2,400 for coverage, my company pays the rest-$9,561 for employee/spouse medical and dental. We also provide company-paid life and other insurance premiums amounting to $153. Altogether, company-paid benefits add $9,714 to the cost of employing Sally... A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government's message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price.
Michael Fleischer, WSJ 8/9/2010
Doctors tend toward the self-important. Saving lives and being told you are wonderful by patients inflates the ego. Nevertheless, I feel the importance of healthcare policy may well be under appreciated.
Health care costs are the fastest rising expense for of both business and the country as a whole. Added to these increases is the unpredictability engendered by Obamacare. These rapidly rising, incalculable costs underlie much of the malaise infecting the American economy, contribute to unemployment, and weaken our competitiveness in the world
The healthcare bill was written, promoted and passed by people that have never hired a worker or started a business. The funding mechanisms for Obamacare is not based upon economics or fairness, but strictly upon politics. Universal tax hikes were unacceptable to the voters, and the unions and large companies had enough political clout to avert the burden falling on them. This left small business and the uninsured, two politically weak groups, to shoulder the costs through required coverage, the individual mandate, and fines. Congress and the President treated small business like an ATM, financing a social experiment on the backs of small companies.
Pelsoi and Reid threaded the needle, satisfying their union and large business patrons, while fulfilling their campaign promises to widen coverage. However, in this cynical political calculus, they forgot one important point. Most jobs in this country are created by small businesses. The combination of incomprehensible rules, indeterminate costs, and an administration favoring ideology over jobs, has resulted in a hiring strike by small business owners. Faced with unprecedented uncertainty and hostility, the companies are doing everything possible to replace jobs with technology and temporary workers. Lack of new jobs is the Achilles heel of the economy, and will result in below trendline growth far into the future.
The administration has expressed surprise at the poor rate of job formation in this recovery, with resultant drags on housing, aggregate demand and GDP, despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus. The reason for the failure of such policies is clear to those of us running small businesses. Obamacare, and the anti-job ideology it engenders, are like an anchor dragging down the economy now, and for years to come.
I again refer to my analogy of the health care system as a house of cards several miles high. Pelosi, Reid and Obama tried to slip a few cards out of the bottom without bringing down the edifice, they didn't succeed.
As an aside, one of the main proponents of Obamacare, Max Baucus, admitted to not reading the bill.
I am actually relieved, as I can't believe anyone who read it would actually vote for it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704017904575409733776372738.html
Employing Sally costs plenty too. My company has to write checks for $74,000 so Sally can receive her nominal $59,000 in base pay. Health insurance is a big, added cost: While Sally pays nearly $2,400 for coverage, my company pays the rest-$9,561 for employee/spouse medical and dental. We also provide company-paid life and other insurance premiums amounting to $153. Altogether, company-paid benefits add $9,714 to the cost of employing Sally... A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government's message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price.
Michael Fleischer, WSJ 8/9/2010
Doctors tend toward the self-important. Saving lives and being told you are wonderful by patients inflates the ego. Nevertheless, I feel the importance of healthcare policy may well be under appreciated.
Health care costs are the fastest rising expense for of both business and the country as a whole. Added to these increases is the unpredictability engendered by Obamacare. These rapidly rising, incalculable costs underlie much of the malaise infecting the American economy, contribute to unemployment, and weaken our competitiveness in the world
The healthcare bill was written, promoted and passed by people that have never hired a worker or started a business. The funding mechanisms for Obamacare is not based upon economics or fairness, but strictly upon politics. Universal tax hikes were unacceptable to the voters, and the unions and large companies had enough political clout to avert the burden falling on them. This left small business and the uninsured, two politically weak groups, to shoulder the costs through required coverage, the individual mandate, and fines. Congress and the President treated small business like an ATM, financing a social experiment on the backs of small companies.
Pelsoi and Reid threaded the needle, satisfying their union and large business patrons, while fulfilling their campaign promises to widen coverage. However, in this cynical political calculus, they forgot one important point. Most jobs in this country are created by small businesses. The combination of incomprehensible rules, indeterminate costs, and an administration favoring ideology over jobs, has resulted in a hiring strike by small business owners. Faced with unprecedented uncertainty and hostility, the companies are doing everything possible to replace jobs with technology and temporary workers. Lack of new jobs is the Achilles heel of the economy, and will result in below trendline growth far into the future.
The administration has expressed surprise at the poor rate of job formation in this recovery, with resultant drags on housing, aggregate demand and GDP, despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus. The reason for the failure of such policies is clear to those of us running small businesses. Obamacare, and the anti-job ideology it engenders, are like an anchor dragging down the economy now, and for years to come.
I again refer to my analogy of the health care system as a house of cards several miles high. Pelosi, Reid and Obama tried to slip a few cards out of the bottom without bringing down the edifice, they didn't succeed.
As an aside, one of the main proponents of Obamacare, Max Baucus, admitted to not reading the bill.
I am actually relieved, as I can't believe anyone who read it would actually vote for it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704017904575409733776372738.html
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