Have you seen this one yet? Any ideas?

[goodboy]

My brother sent this to me. He said his boss made him read it in a meeting. Has this one been debunked? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Dear Friends,

The reason 31 million workers are unemployed is because of our "Unwanted" business partner, "Uncle Sam"!! He has forced millions of small business owners to move off shore or close their doors!!

Here's the deal. You're going to start a business or expand the one you've got now. He does not really care what you do or what you're going to do. He will partner with you no matter what business you're in--as long as it's legal.

But he won't give you any capital - you have to come up with that on your own. He won't do any labor that's definitely up to you. What he will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you're allowed to operate your business. That's his roll in "Your" business: to tell you what to do.

Now in return for his rules, He's going to take roughly half of whatever you make in "Your" business each year. Half seems fair, doesn't it? He think's so. Of course, that's half of "Your" profits.

You're also going to have to pay him about 12 percent of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you've got to cover his expenses for promulgating all of the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, he's your partner. It's only "fair."

Now... after you've put "Your" hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you've worked hard for a few decades (paying him 50 percent or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you'd like to cash out - and finally live the good life.

Whether or not this is "fair" - some people never can afford to retire - is a different argument. As your partner, He's happy for you to sell whenever you'd like... because his agreement says, if you sell, you have to pay him an additional 20 percent of whatever the capitalized value of "Your" business is at that time.

I know, I know. You put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all of the labor. That's all true. But He's done his part, too. He's collected 50 percent of the profits each year. And He's always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, he deserve another, final 20 percent slice of "Your" business.

Oh...and one more thing.

Even after you've sold "Your" business and paid all of his fees, He recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you've been retired for years, when you die, you'll have to pay him 50 percent of whatever your estate is worth.

After all, He's got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. He does not think it's "fair" for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.

All in all, if you're a very successful entrepreneur, if you're one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public, you'll end up paying him more than 75 percent of your income over your life time.

He's sure you'll think his offer is reasonable and happily partner up with him, because it doesn't really matter how you feel about it, if you ever try to stiff him - or cheat him on any of his fees or rules - He will have someone break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail.

Today political leaders in both parties all across America are helping "Uncle Sam" force his will on every hard working American/Small Business and Property Owners!! and they don't understand why there aren't more new jobs?? Lets start "Cleaning House"!!! Your "Vote" is more important than ever!!

[Ian David]

1. Sounds like a hostile work environment at your brother's office. n/t

[Old Codger]

2. Mostly

Those rules apply I am sure ,normal laws for all of us, I would guess though that there are some exaggerations involved here. Nothing on snopes on this.


(on edit) actually not a "guess" on the exaggerations, they have taken them to extremes in this one...

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. check it out on Snopes dot com and see if they have a hisotry of it.

Does you brother know the source of this e-mail?
Does he have a hands on copy of it?
This close to elections, sure sounds like right wing tricks.

[JoePhilly]

4. Responses to the dope ....

Your business makes widgets, you need parts to build your widgets. Those parts come to you via roadways. To be sold, your widgets must be moved across roads. Is your company building those roads. No, its "your partner".

You want people to buy your widgets. But not all of your customers drive. They need transportation. They take the bus to get your widgets. Are you providing your customers transportation? No, your partner does.

You paid a supplier 1 million dollars for parts. The supplier takes your money, but never gives you the parts. You take them to court to get your money. Your partner provides the legal system you need.

You've made some very nice widgets. Men with guns steal them. Do you have your own private police force to track down the criminals?

This guy who is so upset with his unwanted "partner" should look for a country where he can operate freely.

I hear Somalia is nice.

[Scuba]

9. Nailed it.

[JHB]

10. Your business needs short-term loans for working capital...

...some of it for ordinary needs, some because a million of your cash is tied up with the supplier who broke his contract. The bank thinks you're small beans and they can make more gambling on Wall Street.

Well, we're working on that one, but your "partner" is going to need more authority to tell the banks what to do. And actually, that authority isn't some sort of "grab", it's what your "partner" used to be able to do until the bank's lobbyists got the laws changed.

So are you going to back your "partner" up? Or chuck him and leave it to the banks, to whom you're just a flea?
Or just move to sunny Somalia?

[Bigmack]

5. Best response.....

.... I can think of is that the entire power of the government is behind him to protect him from people who would steal his business, destroy his business, and take everything he has. The laws, cops, and courts are all his to use, as are the roads and other infrastructure. His employees need that infrastructure to function, too. The entire power of the government is expensive.

People forget after a long peaceful period that history has generally been hard on the businessman, and only government has the power to protect him.

[RandomThoughts]

6. When people are not making millions a year.

While others are in poverty, then you can make an argument about the private sector accurately rewarding work that is done by people.

What that post is saying is that unregulated capitalism, and even monopoly capitalism should set distribution rules.

The missing component of the economic right, is not seeing the flaws in Capitalism, and how social systems can help balance out those flaws.



Government is not taking peoples income, the system is taking it from people doing the work, and giving it to people skimming profits from that work, when nobody could do the amount of work that such an income could rationalize. Government taxation is a correction to an error in Capitalism, if you find a way to fix that error, then you can talk about government being the problem.


A boss at a company is taxing his employees by taking a cut of the profit from the work they do.

So really private sector argument is saying people want to run their own government, which is saying they want to set all the rules.

It is not that complicated.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. What a bunch of 'hogwash'! What small business pays federal taxes to the tune of 50% of their

business? Wonder how much this guy's boss 'wrote off' last year. And to bitch about the 12% (SS and Medicare??) as being used to pay for regulation is totally dishonest. Show me somebody who's had 75% of their income taken.... how about the majority of corporations that haven't paid any taxes for decades?

Here's the tax table for small businesses.... where's that 50%?

Corporate Income Tax Rates--2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005


Taxable income over Not over Tax rate

$ 0 $ 50,000 15%
50,000 75,000 25%
75,000 100,000 34%
100,000 335,000 39%
335,000 10,000,000 34%
10,000,000 15,000,000 35%
15,000,000 18,333,333 38%
18,333,333 .......... 35%

http://www.smbiz.com/sbrl001.html

[texastoast]

8. Pissed about the lack of common sense?

This guy is bitching about regulations and having to pay for them. Well, if the corporate types would DO THE RIGHT THING IN THE FIRST PLACE, there would be no need for regulations. Common sense, foresight, and compassion for others are not very high on the capitalists' to-do lists, so you have to MAKE them do the right thing--just like children. They have only themselves to blame.

Those of of capitalistic faith will poison the village well to get at the black gold if we let you! And build the Pinto and sell it if we let you! Ande remove the entire mountaintop if we let you! (Oh, we are letting you on that one.)

Oh wait, the email says that Uncle Sam will let you sell anything you like. NOT TRUE!

The tax rates are posted in another reply. Here's another link http://www.alllaw.com/articles/tax/article5.asp

This is a crock of lies, spin, and unsubstantiated bullshit, and I agree, your brother is in a hostile work environment.

[JHB]

11. If you don't like it "friend", go someplace where you can do what you want.

But you'll have a lot fewer customers who can buy what you're selling, and the guys who will break down your door and threaten you with automatic weapons will not be there to take you to jail, and if you're really lucky you might even survive the experience. You may have to ransom your family members back and hand over just about everything you have (here's hoping they don't think you are richer than you really are, lest they think you're holding out on them), but at least you won't have to suffer with having a "partner".