You Greedy Dog!Editor's note: This editorial first appeared in the May 1989 issue. And remember, these positions were taken years before Rush Limbaugh even got on the radio and in response to some of the rhetoric resulting from the recent Bush/Clinton presidential election.About two years ago I wrote a guest editorial for the Alliance of American Agents trade fair program. The subject was the problem of agency profitability - in reality, the problem of agency un-profitability. That editorial was written on the dawn of a new, industry-adverse insurance department that promised to shake the very foundation upon which you do business. I predicted a shake-out of auto insurance agencies, forced cutbacks in agency staff, lower profitability and a restricted marketplace as companies left or curtailed their writing. All of that, as you know, has happened. But you are still here because you evolved to meet the threat. You tightened your belt, tallied your revenues and chopped your expenses wherever you could. You got back to the basics of business, and in many respects, your agency may be better off as a result. Yet, in this winter of our discontent, there will be very little opportunity to relax and congratulate one's self on surviving the past couple of years. It's surviving the next couple of years upon which we need to focus. Today, agents are being attacked on two broad fronts. First is the economic front, where you deal with lowered commissions, reduced facilities, the negative impact of direct bill and the cost of increased regulation. You are at least as familiar with these problems as am I. But, since the last presidential election, agents, (Bill Clinton had just been elected) along with all business people in America, are increasingly being attacked on the political front. From Washington D.C., the capitol of the only country on Earth that treats its corporations and businesses as if they are the enemy, you have recently learned, having had the unmitigated gall to rise above mediocrity as a successful business person, you are now what is wrong with this country. The problem, we are being told, is corporate America, free enterprise, capitalism, individual initiative, and especially the rich. The solution, of course, is to get rid of all that and replace it with government. Bigger government, more expensive government, more invasive government, more paternal government. And, more taxes, (a lot more), regulations, bureaucrats, and politicians. If that doesn't sound like paradise to you, maybe it's because you just haven't yet "got your mind right," as Cool Hand Luke was exhorted by the sadistic prison guard in the movie of the same name. Sure, you always thought that busting your butt to achieve a higher standard of living for yourself and your family was what America is all about. Now you learn that's called greed. Just get your mind right. Get politically correct, for Pete's sake. After all, socialism has worked so well in other countries, we owe it to ourselves to try it here. Over the years, tens of thousands of American insurance entrepreneurs and other business people made a decision to take advantage of the unlimited opportunities available in this country. They did this in a time-honored way. They worked 12 hour days and put their families' wealth at risk. They invested in themselves, their employees and their industry. They competed for market share. In the process of doing all this they created jobs and generated commerce. Now if you were among that group and survived the process and became successful, you generated individual wealth. Generated wealth is the carrot; it's the incentive; it's the reward for the work, risk and success. Generated individual wealth is the lubricant without which the engine of our economy would instantly grind to a halt. But your government would have you believe that your desire and ability to obtain and hold that prosperity for your family is nothing more than crass greed. I read where somebody recently interviewed thousands of combat vets, and discovered what exactly it was that motivated men to take heroic risks during wartime. Guess what? It wasn't in the furtherance of any noble social causes. It wasn't for military glory or service-wide esprit de corps. It wasn't even for love of country. Rather, the interviews showed, these heroic deeds were motivated by a sense of self-preservation and loyalty and comradeship to those other men sharing the foxhole. There is a lesson there for those political ideologues in Washington who share a common disdain for successful business people - the peacetime, economic equivalent of the combat hero. Business people don't create jobs, take incredible risks, work brutal hours in the furtherance of noble social causes either. Nor are they likely to do so just to deliver a cheap product or service to the consumer. (Note to Hillary - They were not doing it for the Village!) Successful business people expend the incredible efforts that they do in order to acquire and hold individual prosperity for themselves and those other people sharing the foxhole - their family. So, how do you defend your political front? How do you keep a fat, intrusive, growing government from creating disincentives to your business success? How can you keep the politicians from making you, the productive, successful business person, the scapegoat for everything wrong in America? It just may be impossible - at least for the next four years. But here are some suggestions to at least make you feel better: Stop feeling or acting guilty if your extraordinary efforts bring you extraordinary rewards. You deserve the fruits of your labor. You have more because you do more. You aren't what's wrong with America - you are what's right with America! What is wrong with America is a growing, unproductive, dependent constituency that votes for a living. Resist with every ounce of strength the government's gluttonous desire to confiscate your family's hard-earned prosperity via increases in your personal or corporate taxes. (Especially if they call it contributions!) If you are a successful business person, you are already paying many times your "fair share." Get yourself an aggressive CPA and use every legal means to reduce your tax liability. Bury your elected representatives in mail protesting any tax increases without corresponding, greater spending cuts. The government spending your money is no better for the economy then you spending your money - only you receive little or no benefit nor do you have the choice of where the money is spent. One of the greatest evils of our society is government's redistribution of the wealth, in it's relentless pursuit of mediocrity, from the earners to the looters. You make it; they take it. And daily, thousands of people who were previously earners, give up and become looters; the great, unaccountable, entitled mass of humanity. Hell, why not - it sure is easier. So get radical. Question some of the basic assumptions of our tax system. For example, the so-called "progressive" tax rate. The more income you make, the more you should pay for government, right? Makes perfect sense. Does it? Do you pay more for pork chops because you have a higher than average income? Do you want to? Do you pay more for gasoline? Do you want to? If you make $50,000 should you pay twice as much for that new Buick as the person who only makes $25,000? Would that make any sense at all? Yet so many accept the fact, with perfect equanimity, that you should pay twice as much (or 3 times as much or 10 times as much) for the cost of government simply because you have a higher income! If you really work hard, create lots of jobs, generate lots of commerce and open a whole bunch of insurance agencies, your income eventually could exceed $100,000. If you can get over your guilt long enough to calculate your tax on an adjusted gross income of $100,000 you realize that your cost for government (from federal income taxes alone) was $33,000 for 1992. If the president has his way, and he probably will, next year your cost is going to skyrocket to $36,000.It was recently reported, if you divide up the federal revenues collected in a year (from income taxes only) by the number of people in this country you arrive at a number of approximately $1,800 per person. Your pro-rata share of the income taxes, therefore, is $1,800. By any normal understanding of the word, $1,800 is your fair share of the tax burden. Yet you are paying $36,000 - 20 times your fair pro-rata share! While you are savoring the inequity therein, don't forget that you are probably receiving very little benefit from government compared to your fellow citizen earning $25,000. You are not even eligible for a whole host of government programs like housing, subsidized mortgages, college loans/scholarships for your children's education and dozens of other benefits. And, if it weren't bad enough that you've just been mugged for 20 times your fair share while being deprived of substantial government benefits as a reward for creating all those jobs and generating all that commerce, you're still going to have to listen to one of those class-envy politicians proclaim that you're a greedy dog and have been getting a free ride all along! Now - haven't I made you feel better? |