Religious Liberty?

[Brian37]

I hate the term "hard work", that is bullshit. Productivity isn't about the amount of sweat and time, but efficiency. Business owners don't own businesses because they want to "work hard", they own them so they can have economic stability, and without that stress the hours they may spend doing it, makes it easier on them. It is much harder to work long hours if you have to struggle to pay your bills and split your time between family and two jobs.

Let me tell you about my second business here in Korea, an English school.  When we opened, we had 0 students and about $15,000/month losses, mostly wages to staff who for the first couple of months pretty much had nothing to do but sit around texting their friends or watching movies on their computers.  As we built our reputation and got more students, my wife spent many hours a day counseling parents, organizing children's schedules, etc.  I taught ALL new students, and spent hours a day training the teachers.  After 1 year, we were basically balanced, but still losing money due to aggressive advertising.  

Due to MERS, we took an unexpected dip.  I had to spend all day (like, 18 hours each day) teaching "classes" on Skype, but we still lost a lot of money.  Our survival as a company, and as a family, was threatened.  Yet after a week of MERS, I bought new computers that we didn't have a budget for so the teachers could also run Skype classes.  My wife spent at least 10 hours/day explaining how to install Skype, calling students before class to iron out technical issues, etc.  After MERS was over, I was doing weekend makeup classes for about 3 months until we finally got all the paid classes up to date.  Through my own dedication and hard work, I saved the company, honored my commitment to the parents of my students, and saved the jobs of half a dozen workers.

And my reward for that?  After 18 months in business, I'm still about $100k in debt, and my teachers make more money than I do: about $4k/month, and my wife combined take that just to meet our family's basic expenses, and we work WAY harder than all our employees put together.

Now, I know from my first business what the result, eventually, will be.  A property like ours can support about 140 students, which will result in us being able to bank about $10k/month after expenses.  We'll have to repeat this WHOLE PROCESS several times before we're making enough money to provide for our future.

Now, at some point, a future teacher will come in and say, "You make over $10,000 and you only work a couple hours a day.  Surely you can afford to buy me a new ____, or pay for my _____, you cheap fucker."  What he won't see is the spots of blood in the utility room where I smashed my fist into the mirror just trying to stay awake for the next class.


If you haven't run a small or medium business, you can't understand this: you just see the end product.  You don't see the sweat and tears, the late-night fights with your wife over yet another loan.  You talk about efficiency like it's a switch you just flip, ignoring the years of training and careful planning it takes to get anything running really well.  You don't see how much stress an unstable market puts on someone who has nothing but the whims of his clients to separate him from wealth or bankruptcy, while his employees waltz off to the bar every Friday night with their guaranteed paycheck.

Don't fucking tell anyone with a small business that "hard work is bullshit."  Don't tell them why they own their business.  Don't tell them what their priorities are, what they care about, or what kind of person they are.  Just shut the fuck up, put your Abba tape into the VCR, relax, and appreciate the fact that businesses like mine pay the tax that underwrites your fucking welfare checks.

And if five years from now I'm living on easy street, I'll have a nice minimum-wage job waiting for you.  You can start by cleaning my fucking blood off the floor, because maybe then you'll understand what it means to run a business.

Take care of yourself Han, I guess that is what you are best at.  

Once again, you show me where I said all business owners are jaded and selfish. I only said far too many at the top are. And as far as appreciating the private sector, again, I defy you to show me where I said we shouldn't? I still don't owe you my submission like a housewife with no job. But don't hadn't me this crap that being a boss constitutes the bulk of the labor. If you employ people, especially more than 2, then that means your job is bean counter and general, and you delegate. Now, if you are local and get your hands dirty along side your workers, then you most likely have more empathy for them than some asshole in an office 5 states away who never sees the workers. Still does not mean you are the most important part of society. The bulk of labor and the bulk of buying power are the workers, not you.

Your mistake is that you made this about you, and I am talking about a bigger climate and mentality collectively.