A New California

When the psychic (or my dead Grandfather) said "the winds of change are howling towards me", I had no idea how right he was. In the five months since my experience with him, my whole world is different. I had just always assumed I would do this job for the rest of my life, just like my dad did. However, every day I get increasingly jaded and pissed off with the entire auto industry and have truly grown to hate everything about it. I hate our business, I hate the banks, I hate the car dealers, all of it. I've been involved for almost 16 years now and at only 33 years old, I'm way too young to be this stressed out and beaten up, with my health literally being affected by it. Obviously, the overall economy has killed us with more customers out of work each day and unable to make their car payments, but there are many more factors involved than just "the economy". It's a much bigger problem.

Target number one, the banks. They received a massive portion of the $800 billion dollar stimulus package, specifically to pump that money back into the economy. But they didn't. Instead, they swallowed up other fledgling banks and kept the rest of the money to boost their own balance sheets. Instead of helping the situation by opening up credit lines for independent finance companies like us, they did the opposite. They called all the credit lines. Regardless of time or loyalty or good standing, they just shut everything off, killing the most valuable resource we had which was money to lend. Unable to get any new customers, all we have left is people who are out of work and defaulting on their car loans at historic rates. Repossessions skyrocket, flooding the auto auctions and reducing the vehicle values even further, all of which gives us increasing losses month after month. Massive losses means laying people off, cutting expenses to the bare bone, cutting salaries (which in turn effects everyone around us from the deli to the electronics store to the car dealers) until we can't survive any longer. And sadly, that time has finally come. After being incorporated for 18 years, we are closing the doors. Pulling the plug. Closing up shop. Finished. It's obviously depressing, but we are just a grain of sand in the overall picture. Endless numbers of little restaurants, hair salons, construction companies, hobby shops, clothing boutiques, etc. are all closing their doors along with us because of one simple reason...no money. No money to buy merchandise, no money to buy materials, no money to loan out. Nothing. Even though the banks have billions of dollars from the government (WHICH WAS OUR MONEY DAMMIT!), they have nothing to help the small business?

So the economy is to blame and the banks are to blame, but really, who has the power to fix it? Who has the resources and the legal power to demand a change of this scope? Me? No, not yet anyway. My local Chamber of Commerce? No way. Private investors? Not anymore. They all got screwed by the stock market and Bernie Madoff and the sub-prime housing market. Anyone that still has any money is so shell-shocked that there is no way in hell they are investing it. I have a feeling that half of the mattresses around America are filled with cash right now because who is going to trust the banks after this? The one thing can truly fix this, as much as it pains me to say it, is The Federal Government. Sad but true.

But this Government? These people in office? No way. At a time when we are supposed to be cutting expenses, cutting archaic and worthless programs, cutting taxes to increase revenue in small business, creating incentives for working, once again the opposite is happening. Billions are being handed out to not work. On November 4th of this year, Congress passed the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009 (S.1699), which increased the unemployment benefits an additional 14 weeks (and up to 20 in some states with higher unemployment rates) which pushed the overall time for receiving unemployment benefits to 99 weeks! Almost two full years? Are you kidding me? And who pays for it? Businesses do, with a surtax. Just to be clear, the same businesses who had to lay off their employees because of low profits are now paying an additional tax to keep their benefits coming for almost two years. Wow. Don't you think somewhere along the way, somewhere in Congress or in the White House, someone would look at this model and decide it didn't work? Nope. Instead, they just keep handing out money to people that aren't working and taxing the struggling businesses even more. Pouring money into banks and not requiring they lend it out. Flooding money into social programs without proving they actually work or are even necessary. It's a broken system that definitely needs to be changed. Someone with a brain and a great business sense needs to come along and right the ship or our nation will go under, just like our little business has. And you have to think of the nation as a business and make the decisions that need to be made to fix the business, not please every customer (or citizen).

Thankfully though, I think there is hope for us all, or at least for us here in California. The rest of the country may have to wait until this person can work up to the White House someday but for the Golden State, I have a feeling good things are coming next November. It's clear that California is bankrupt, there is no hiding that. We have a $42 billion dollar deficit without any answer on how to close that gap, other than increasing taxes. But it doesn't matter what you raise the taxes to because regardless of how much the government takes in, they will always spend more. It's just the business model that is in place, as crazy as that sounds. And just like the nation as a whole, California is also a business, and a huge business at that. If California was an independent nation (which isn't really a bad idea), it would rank as the 8th largest economy in the world. We have more people in California than in all of Canada! So in order to fix this sinking business, you need someone that knows how to run a business, right? Not a movie star, not a small town mayor, not a community organizer, but a successful business-savvy trend setter. That's it. Cut the expenses, create more incentives to work opposed to not working, and improve the bottom line. Simple. Well, it just may be if we get the right person in the Governor's office and lucky for you, I think I found her.

Her name is Meg Whitman and she has a remarkable story. M.B.A. from Harvard. 30 years experience with Stride Rite, Proctor & Gamble, FTD, Hasbro, Disney, and most notably, eBay. In her 10 years at eBay as C.E.O., she grew the company from 30 employees to 15,000 and increased revenue from $4 million to $8 billion! Wouldn't it be nice if California could experience a 2,000% growth in revenue? Most importantly though, the whole reason she joined eBay in the first place is because "she saw a company dedicated to helping millions of people reach their goals of launching and building their own businesses." In other words, helping the small business. People like me, my family, our friends, etc. We are small-business owners and we are all struggling, trying to stay alive and we need someone in office that will fight for us for once!

Check out more about her campaign to run for Governor in 2010 at http://www.megwhitman.com/. Also, stay tuned to this blog because I've finally found someone I can truly support, not just because she's a Republican but because she believes in the small business, in creating private sector jobs while reducing government jobs. It's about damn time!

The Dan