Home Again...Home Again...Jiggity Jog

I'm Busy, Busy, Busy


I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad right now, but the good news is that just two months after loosing my day job I find myself up to my eyeballs in work.

Paying work.

I came home yesterday afternoon with two new avenues of investigation to pursue, and each is a unique undertaking which I came up with on my own which the attorney's liked when I presented the concepts to them.

Forget "Genius" ...I'm bordering on "SUPER Genius" in the words of Wyle E. Coyote.

I'm not gonna brag and hand out the numbers, but let's just say I've been able to get myself a raise in hourly rate that more than doubles what I was making working for someone elses company.

That's the beauty of working for yourself.

In spite of facing the risk of going broke each and every day (been there...got the tee shirt), by being "self-employed" you also enjoy the benefit of having the owner (that would be me) decide that the president (that would be me) needs a raise...then all you have to do is go out and sell yourself to someone willing to pay the amount you're asking for...except instead of having some sort of imaginary "guarantee" of employment you only have the opportunity of billing your customer(s) for the amounts agreed on with each contract or opportunity.

(then of course you have to write an invoice and actually get PAID to make any money, and working for yourself often involves waiting at least 30 days for you "paycheck" after your finish your work.)

Most people don't realize that the same thing is true when you take a salary or hourly wage and the company pays the other half of your FICA/FUTA/SSI and your workman's comp and health insurance and any other benefits you enjoy.

If you're grossing $50K a year the owner has to be able to sell you or whatever it is you do or produce for at LEAST $75K annually (sometimes nearly $100K) or the mean old under taxed rich bastard (the owner) can't afford to have your silly butt in his building in the first place.

That's what kills me when the sniveling tree hugging booger eating liberals and their friends the union thugs start crying and bitching and complaining about employment practices at Wal Mart.

If you're paying attention you would understand that when Wal Mart's hiring they have something like fifty people per position apply, and in spite of having a good number of part time positions with limited benefits they generally have a happy workforce making about $10 per hour on average with at least some contribution toward health benefits and paid leave off for vacation and having babies and stuff.

This means that the average worker costs Wal Mart about $35,000 to $40,000 per year in total, and with those labor expenses they're still able to sell you a toaster for $12 or a set of tires for $225.

Can you imagine what the cost of those same home appliances and rubber doughnuts would be if the unions are allowed to step in with the proposed "card check" voting which eliminates secrete ballots on unionization?

When "Vito" and "the Moose" get through intimidating a bunch of middle aged women, twenty something pimple faced boys, and senior citizen greeters into checking the "yes" box on their Card I guarantee Wal Mart prices will go up at least 20% if not more, and in spite of the higher wages won't those same employees just basically give back their raises to the company if they also SHOP at Wal Mart?

And what about the "working poor" and all the "Working Families" out there that aren't employed by Wal Mart?

They're not getting a raise...they're just paying more for Onions and Meat and AAA batteries for their kids video games, so the net benefit to the unions (in the rebound of members and associated increase in what they're really after-billions in union dues) would simply be spread out across the balance of the population in the form of increased costs...more or less the same as a net tax increase in the form of decreased purchasing power.

...so any waaayyy

Back to my position, so now I've gone from spinning my wheels with nothing productive to do all day to having to bust my butt over the next 7 days to get product and answers out the door, then taking the laptop computer with me on our ten day "epic southern sojurn" along with a milk crate full of files and books on what is rapidly turning into a "working vacation."

That's OK with me I guess. I did it for ten years back in the 1990's and I can do it again today until it stops paying well or ceases to be fun.