Archive for December 21st, 2008

Here is a great commentary from today’s Arizona Republic.  For those in our community that get a weekly paycheck, thank your lucky stars! For those of us that are self employed you realize just how scary it can be. Many small businesses will not be able to survive these next few months. There day is filled with fear. The news outlets talk about how bad it is at every turn. Small business owners have no idea of that lies around the corner? How long can we hold out? Will fuel go through the roof again?  When will my customers start spending money with me?

From E.J. Montini – Arizona Republic – Dec. 21, 2008

The businessman’s message ran for 1 minute and 36 seconds on my answering machine. He was trying to set me straight about the problems being faced by people like him, which he thought were ignored by people like me. And he was right.

I didn’t have the brains or the guts to go into business for myself.

I grew up in a mill town, come from a family of millworkers and spent several summers working in a steel mill outside of Pittsburgh to help pay for college. Professionally, I drifted into a less physically demanding form of assembly-line work and have spent many happy years toiling away in what I call the Paragraph Factory.

I feel close to the working people who are bearing the brunt of the economic downturn, like a Phoenix couple I wrote about last week, both of whom had been laid off from their jobs.

The anonymous local businessman was responding to that article when he left his message on my voice mail.

He chose not to leave his name or telephone number, or even to tell me what business he was in. I doubt that he had rehearsed all that he was going to tell me.

There is a raw, emotional quality to his voice. His sentences start and stop. He sounds a bit disjointed. A little frustrated. A little sad.

All for good reason.

He said:

“Who has more to lose, Ed?

“The common person that gets laid off from their job making $50 or $60,000 a year, you know, has a small savings. And they just lose their job. And they get unemployment or severance. And they can go six months and hopefully survive and keep their house.

“Or the business owner that had to lay them off? Who had been working for 25 or 35 years. Has bought their own property. Has some kind of a liquid income, so finally they can get above their heads. And pay their bills. And pay all their taxes. And pay all their employees’ health insurance and all that.

“And finally get to an area where maybe they can start giving bonuses. See that light on the corner. And being 48 years old and possibly you’re going to turn that corner and see retirement on the horizon. And then to all of a sudden, in two years, lose all of that and begin where you started back in 1985.

“You tell me, which is worse?

“That you’ve already made all that money, and you bought the property, and your kids are going to college, and you’re doing all that, and then after 25 years of working hard, you lose all that?

“Or just to lose your job and have to go look for another job? Maybe have to deal with it for six months or something.

“Look on both sides.

“Business owners may be callous or whatever, but they are losing worse because we have a lot more to lose. Twenty-five years after buying a property and you just lose it all in two years.

“Isn’t that amazing?”

Then he hung up.

There probably won’t be any federal bailout money for guys like him. In the meantime, some of his taxes already may have gone to assist big-time bankers and Wall Street types and might wind up helping some of the working stiffs who were behind on their mortgages and about to lose their homes.

The small-business man didn’t ask for help, however. Or for sympathy.

Imagine that. Even after losing everything and having to start anew, as he had “back in 1985,” all that he asked is that I take a moment to “look on both sides.”

At a time when so many others are looking for a handout, that is amazing.

Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.