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Here is glimpse of the mood in France. Entrepreneurs say they are looking for lower and simplified taxes, less bureaucracy, more flexibility in hiring and firing and easier bank loans. Pay sheets are so complicated by taxes that it is often easier to hire an outside firm to fill out the paperwork and cut the checks. Many small and medium-size companies opt simply to sub-contract rather than to take on employees who can be hard to fire if they prove incompetent. Does that sound vaguely familiar?
Those opting to go into business say they realize that the population is aging and the government cannot sustain costly social benefits at the current level for very long. They want to make money to enjoy while they're young and put away more for their old age. They also want the challenge of running a business.
"We really want to be our own bosses," said Igor Makovetzki, 33, an automotive sales manager who founded a luxury food company on the side with eight partners. "A lot of people don't like risk.” You’d hear similar observations in Los Angeles, St. Louis or Valentine, Nebraska.
In our blessed America I’m concerned that we have become so weighted down with regulations, entitlement programs, taxes and debt that the entrepreneurs’ way is neglected and at times even despised. With many of the challenges we are facing, I think it is increasingly important to preserving our way of life. Increasingly our society seems to operate on the “naval convoy” slow ship theory. Moving complacently at the speed of the slowest ship has become more acceptable than striving to keep up with the fastest and best.
A former executive for Nordstrom, one of America’s best run department store groups, said to me some time ago that “we’ve become fat, dumb and happy.” I don’t think she meant happy with the way things are but instead was referring to the happy in denial and avoidance syndrome. You know, the forced and hollow kind meant to avoid dealing with the harder edged truths. If you follow the news, you know what I mean. The dollar is trading at historic low levels against other currencies, and street gangs are running rampant but we’d rather talk about the follies of O.J. Simpson.
The French President recently said “We are going to make France a country where it's easy to do business, where you can concentrate on running your company without hassle or pressure other than those of the market."
In city halls and state capitols across America there are too many people who have never operated an enterprise and sneer at the process as though entrepreneur is a four letter word. I think that those men and women, the risk takers and value creators are the future of America.
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