Howard Blake is the pen name of a small businessman from the Midwest, who has written this AEI Online article that is brilliant in its simplicity. By Democratic Party standards, Mr. Blake and his wife are wealthy and should be taxed more. However, Mr. Blakes points out that appearances can be deceiving, particularly in economic matters:
From that $71,000 of actual cash flow, subtract our federal tax payments of $24,539 and our state income taxes of around $4,000, and you find that our cash available for living expenses is actually around $43,000. Sufficient for our needs. But clearly a good deal short of true wealth.
I suppose my wife and I do what we do because we like to. We must, because if you divide our $43,000 of spendable income last year by the 6,000 hours of labor, much of it manual, that the two of us put into our business (we kept track), our time works out to be compensated at around $7.50 an hour. Just the same, incentives do matter. And it is a concrete fact that cash alone fuels our growth. With more cash, our business will grow faster; we’re a small player in a big industry, and the market is there for additional growth. We’re constrained only by the availability of investment capital, and that has to be generated by our business.
My wife and I have a passion for our little enterprise. It’s been our life for 20 years, demanding whatever creative abilities we have, consuming most of our waking moments, focusing our energies on producing the best products we can, and beckoning us to work seven days a week to ensure good service for our customers.
Then every four years the Democratic nominee for President informs us we don’t pay enough taxes. We are called greedy and self-serving special interests. We’re told that we are “rich,” and that we have wealth only because we are lucky.
I have described my financial situation in some detail in the hope that this snapshot will help people understand who most of the top 5 percent of taxpayers really are, and how taxes affect the folks who make America work. I know I’m fortunate, but I certainly don’t feel rich. I have fond hopes of some day becoming wealthy (a goal I share with most of my fellow citizens), and a tax policy that encourages my efforts toward that end would not only benefit me, but the rest of society as well. But the reality is that my wife and I have to work extremely hard every day just to hold our current position.
We’ve been managing our finances with care, investing in our business with the kind of concentration that comes from spending our own money, and providing jobs for dozens of our neighbors. I dare say that the country benefits from our stewardship–and that of hundreds of thousands of other “rich” people just like us–more than it would from any of John Kerry’s plans for our money.
In representing business people over the past 25 years, I have learned that non-business people often grossly underestimate how hard it is to run a business profitably and well. Also overlooked or underappreciated is the great benefit that communities derive from the employment that is generated through small businesspeople’s willingness to undertake the risk of their enterprise. Mr. Blake’s article explains a big part of the reason why running a business is such a formidable task, made even more so in this current climate in which many normal business practices are being criminalized. Hat tip to Newmark’s Door for the link to Mr. Blake’s piece.