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Next time you want to slam unions remember this: “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Even if your job is NOT union, remember that the business has to stay competitive with the union jobs in order to hire people. So a business has to offer a decent salary just to get people to sign on.

Part of what makes America great is the freedom for our workers to collectively bargain for better conditions, thereby raising the bar for other businesses if they want to hire, because the best and the brightest will take the jobs with the better working conditions.

This is also why big business LOVES high unemployment. It makes it easier for business to say “take it or leave it” and offer crap wages and working conditions.  An easy example will be the fact that I’ve seen contract rates fall by 10-15% in the last year alone.

The desperate can be easily pressured to “take it or leave it.”

Dear Congress -

I’m a small business owner. All of the tax cuts in the WORLD aren’t going to change the fact that until demand comes up I’m not in a position to hire someone, no matter how much I want to.

If I hired someone today they would be sitting on their ass waiting for work.

Demand isn’t going to come up until the consumers start spending money.

They aren’t going to start spending money until they have more in their pockets.

So a hint – leave me the hell out of your equation and give the tax cuts to those who need it, so they can spend it, so I can hire someone and start growing again.

Love, me.

Ferrari anyone?

Saw this parked out in front of the hospital I’m working at right now.

Should have been a doctor.

I’ll try not to drool on it openly.

First off I’m sorry for the long delay between posts – all of a sudden I find I have more work than i know what to do with.   This is a good thing, right?

So the second part of my post is:

1099-Direct

This is probably the easiest type of consulting to do.  You work for an agency, Norwin, K-Force, and the like – they have a staff in place than handles the paperwork, invoicing, and such, and all you do is collect your check.  To start you go to the IRS website and fill out a simple form for an EIN – that is an employer ID number.  You fill it out as a “sole proprietor” and at tax time, all of the money that is made by the “Company” is transferred to you directly.

Pros 

• Simplicity.  Most of us don’t want to spend a lot of time hassling with LLC paperwork, paying corporate income taxes as well as the hassle of paying yourself out of the company.  Just be sure you’re putting your 25% away for the quarterly taxes, because if, at the end of the year, you haven’t kept that up, well the fines are huge.  (If when you file your 1040 you owe more than 25,000, they peanize you for underwithholding, *AND* then require you to pay estimated tax throughout the rest of the year.
• No Hussling.  If you’re working for an agency, you don’t have to get out and hussle up your next assignment, someone else is going to do it for you.

Cons

• You still work for someone else.  Someone else dictates your schedule, you still have to request time off whereas when you’re doing project-based work, all you have to do is schedule yourself some vacation in between projects. 
• Your “company” will never grow because it’s just you.  You don’t get to take advantage of the fact that being a “Corporate Consultant” puts you in a great position to recruit other consultants.
• Benefits – you’re paying cash for benefits.  The quote I got for my family of five from Anthem was about $750/mo.  (just to provide a baseline)

That’s all I can think off off the top of my head, anyone got anything else?

My wife and I have this ongoing argument.  To sum it up:

She views technology as being the source of all evil. 

Now this is funny considering the person she’s chosen to spend the rest of her life with would (will?) be at the front of the line when they start implanting bio-organic computers in us.

Truthfully, I see where she goes with it.  Technology has allowed us to do more with less, to make great leaps forward with little or no regard as to whether or not we’re emotionally ready for it as a species.  Technology has made it easier to kill, hurt, maim, or just plain not care than ever previously possible.

However I’m one of the hard-core believers.  I truly believe that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.  If we survive this explosive growth in technology, I believe that technology will eventaully save us, maybe even from ourselves.

As a kid, I grew up watching the original Star Trek.  I’ve seen every one of the original series, and most of just about every spin-off series since.  (With the exception of Deep-Space-Nine, or as we call it around here, “As the Galaxy Turns”)

It has since struck me that Roddenberry had a real dream for the future.  A dream where technology takes care of most of the “have-to’s” and leaves us to pursue the “want-to’s”.  People like me would go into engineering because it’s what we love, not because it’s what pays the bills.  To be able to dedicate one’s life to study, learning, and personal growth is most definately the ideal.

My wife may be right, technology may be the end of us… But every ending signifies a new beginning, and *THAT* is what I’m waiting for.