Shop for America? We are supposed to shop to build the economy? I quit buying Money magazine because it was full of car ads, the worst investment for most, and I shun hypocrisy. (They did an article on Best New Cars, which is like advising which toilet to flush your cash down.) People do have to get around, but that is a separate issue. Read what Henry Ford had to say about credit.
Did you ever wonder why a new car loses 30% of its value when you drive it off the lot? The rumor is depreciation, and that is bogus. The real reason is that about 30% of the purchase price goes to bloated union and executive pension plans at the factory. You lose because the value was never in the new car in the first place. That’s why I buy a good second-hand car once every ten years or so. You may think an assembly worker already making $40 and hour needs help to retire, but I don’t.
While I’m talking money (its just past my year end), I’m tempted to publish again. Too many businesses are started by amateurs, but “how else they gonna learn”? Let me shed some experience on this. Competition is a wonderful thing. Unless you are just starting out. The most common error is starting a business that others can copy easily, not necessarily the business, but can copy your activity. This, whether they succeed or not, strains your supply of raw materials and increases its price.
The competition, when you are starting, is rarely business competition. It is the common attacks by people who swear they never stood in your way. Here is a list, from memory, of the non-business things they attack, you see they are far to clever to actually block you directly. It’s what they do when they spot any of the following things no matter what business you try. This is your copy of the unwritten rulebook:
A) Working capital. You got to have it and hide it, because they can smell it a mile away.
B) A private place for inventory. Or they’ll find another use for it.
C) Tools. Hide your tools, dammit. Your screwdriver is their crowbar.
D) WIP. Never, never let a peasant see your half-completed work.
E) Records. Keep them secret even if they aren’t. I finally had to invent a new languange.
These are the true factors facing newcomers. They don’t yet realize that you cannot succeed without changing the fundamental ways you deal with people who “just wanna know what you’re doing”. There are a minority of exceptions, but most business startup requires some forms of privacy, secrecy and camouflage. I prefer misdirection so you can watch what dastardly things they would have done to you had you really been on that course.
Planing things this way is not natural, because the way to win is do something that takes a longer time to make a profit than they can afford to wait. It works for me, consider the role of planning: The music band I started at 13 still exists in some form after 35 years. The real estate business [property] (that I started back then is still rented out after 31 years. The friendships and partnerships are in effect after 30 years. Nobody who copied can claim any such thing, simply because they copied, which takes no time at all. Did I ever tell you about this guy I knew named Ken Sanchuk? He had seven sets of socket wrenches, all missing the 3/8ths.
I’m encouraging business, just do it the right way. The government will be there to screw you around plenty enough so don’t create your own troubles. I read a text recently on macroeconomics, where they discussed auto-stabilizers, things that tend to stabilize the economy. You may find it interesting that welfare is now included on the list, a given. I tend to agree with Wallace (a Canadian guy I know*), handicap parking is fine until you see it in front of the skating rink.
*[Author's note 2015-11-27: yes, that is the same Wallace.]
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