It's also funny as hell.

We had originally planned to begin development of a companion product for another base of potential customers and would have had to increase staffing by about 25% to cover the effort. We would be making an investment of several years before we could reach the stage to begin to turn a profit on it, but I believe in the long run it would have been as successful as our original product. Perhaps moreso because the potential customer base is larger. Most important to me, it would have meant even more time commitment from my husband and I have been worried about his health for a long time now.

Based on the plans for increased tax rates and the attacks on small businesses, we have given up the idea of introducing this new product line. Why take the risk of several years development cost? Why put in the extra effort when the results will be taken away? We have committed to each other to spend more time on our personal lives and have no debt at this point.

Having said all of this, for us this change has an upside. I would much rather have more hours today and more years tomorrow to share with my husband and our children. Pulling back may be the best thing for him. But as a result, there will be fewer jobs out there and our potential customers will continue to pay expensive hourly rates for services which they might have been able to perform themselves.

We are at the level where we will be most effected by the proposed tax increases. But we are just small-time. No corporate executives in fancy suits, flying around in fancy jets at our company. But there are tens of thousands of companies like us. If many of us end up making the same types of choices due to the disincentives for creativity, then what will the result for our economy be?

“Because, really, your marginal contribution doesn’t matter that much….The point is that you are not John Galt.”

What a nasty remark on your part. Who are you trying to convince – yourself, that others' quitting in protest won't affect you much – or everyone else, that they aren’t important enough to make a difference?

http://www.realmeme.com/roller/page/realmeme?en...

Not what it appears to be

I tell you what. You have all business owners take tax day off. I'll have all of these government employees take May 1st off. Let's see which day sucks more.

Furthermore, I'm not talking about lump sum investments. Those indeed can be susceptible to the “random walk.” We can leave that to the testosterone-laden Ivy leaguers on the trading desks. I'm talking about investing consistently over time and allowing the interest to compound. “The Snowball,” the title of Warren Buffett's book (liberals are fans of Buffett, right?), is a metaphor for this effect.

Really, my original point is this: put your money where your mouth is. If you believe that stock markets are a roulette wheel, then don't put any money in any equity, any 401(k), or any Roth IRA. Let it sit in an FDIC-insured account, and we'll see which one of us does better.