Mr. President, you seem to be having some major problems running the country. Have you ever tried to think of it as a business and use basic business management principles to guide you?
First, you need to tackle problems with a sense of urgency, like the oil spill in the Gulf. Listening to you say after several weeks that you had not even bothered to pick up the phone and call Tony Hayward seemed pretty disturbing to me. A good start would be to get Tony over for a little sit down, then do something we in business call “negotiations.” You tell me your side and I tell you mine and we hash out a deal to try and fix the problem ? quickly. Of course, being president of the United States, you have a much bigger arsenal to negotiate with than any small business ever does ? use it.
Your complete lack of success in coming up with any jobs also seems very worrisome. Has anyone told you that the unemployment rate is still in the stratosphere? Mr. President, here is a clue, a big one that will really help you. Business hates uncertainty. There it is, not that hard to understand if you had ever owned so much as a lemonade stand. Small business owners need to know what their costs will be today, a year from now and five years from now. When you pass a health care bill of over 2,000 pages that is indecipherable to even the authors, then business owners get really worried that they won”t be able to determine costs for their employees. Hiring falls off and unemployment rises, maybe not what you learned at Harvard Mr. President, but a law of Main Street all the same. I would like to add that approximately 70 percent of all jobs come from small businesses Mr. President. Hint, concentrate on this.
Next let”s discuss Eric Holder and the DOJ dropping all the charges against the New Black Panther Party after they had won the case. Mr. President, men of any race dressed in military-style uniforms, armed with bully sticks, yelling racial epithets at the front door of a polling place looks really bad to most Americans. It gives the impression that you are trying to intimidate voters and that is not good for your re-election prospects. Time to lose the radical fringe that clings so closely to your coattails Mr. President. Geez, didn”t they teach you anything about basic sales and marketing at Harvard?
Debt ? now this one should be easy considering all your education. Money comes in and money goes out. You need to keep as much money in your account as you possibly can. You do this by spending less than you take in. For instance, if you take in one $1 million in sales then you need to spend less than $1 million. You keep track of your money by preparing something called a budget; this is something your administration seems to have absolutely no knowledge about. Get yourself a good accountant (who has paid their taxes) to advise you, one who won”t sugar coat the bad news and urges caution in good times. Then cut spending, don”t raise taxes and eventually the economy will start to turn around. When it does, don”t pat yourself on the back, instead thank the hard- working Americans who don”t take six to eight weeks of vacation every year or retire as early as most Europeans.
Next you really need to try to lose the arrogant attitude. Americans have this funny idea that we are all equal and that folks who went to the local Junior College are just as important as the folks who went to Harvard. Also, release your college transcripts and let folks see just how well you did in school. It might make your appalling lack of real world experience easier to take.
Mary Becker is a former San Francisco business owner who now lives in Lake County. Contact her at mbnorthernlights@gmail.com.
