Ok, so the economy has been doing bad. We can go on for hours on the causes, the culprits and the results of many of the actions taken. One action trying to be done will automatically prevent new jobs, destroy thousands of current ones and cause any type of recovery we see now to go out the window. It's a law that would force you to pay sales tax on say anime figures you buy outside your own state.
I'm talking about the tired case of Quill vs. North Dakota, aka the e-commerce tax, or the "amazon tax." Looks as if two moronic politicians, Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Representative Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) want to try to unconstitutionally break a Supreme Court ruling that clearly states that you only pay sales tax if the business you purchase from is in the state you reside. I've already made my point clear and as of today, the great editors and staff at BusinessWeek.com put my comment on the front page for today.
Many Internet businesses have grown despite what the economy has thrown at them. My anime business has grown steadily as well despite me starting it in late 2006 and throughout this whole recession, my customer service has been creating a thriving company that hopefully soon I can create jobs with. New York already broke the laws of the land by having it where you have to pay the already inflated New York sales tax even if you don't live in NY!!
Because many rich scammers out there can't run their hedge funds anymore, the states are strapping for cash they once had from these legal Ponzi Schemes and that means your anime items, not just from me, but from every anime business or all products from all e-commerce businesses will cost more for you. Instead of doing the right thing, many states want to steal money from the average citizen by imposing this tax. Granted a very small universal tax should be a solution to accommodate the state's need and ours but...we all know that won't happen either because of states like New York who can't balance their budget even in an utopian society.
I know I'm sounding much like Code Geass's Lelouche but fighting this is a must for anyone who wants to see the economy continue to recover from such idiotic actions. Call your state representative or aid ebay.com and overstock.com in their fight against this. You can also add to the discussion on BusinessWeek.com along with me. Despite what naysayers think, many e-commerce sites, including my own already pay enough taxes to our state government. I cringe every time I have to impose the Suffolk County 8.625% sales tax on anime figures bought by my fellow New Yorkers. An besides, if my company grows and I add more employees, income tax comes into play and that's where the money should come from! Its a crime to begin with and there is no way this crime should be allowed to expand.Labels: business, economy, money
posted by princetrunks @ 10:20 AM
For the second time I once again grace the front page of
BusinessWeek's website. This time, instead of poking fun at Secretary of Treasury Paulson, I got
my own article up there. The article might not be anything of use for my fellow anime fans but in it I talk about how email is the number one form of communication between me and my customers, which is usually fellow otaku. Business has been getting rather busy but even so, I'm not answering phone calls like a maniac as seen in my day-job or in many other businesses. Granted, the anime fan demographic is that of people who are in this century and who would use email instead of a phone to answer simple questions.
Basically, we all know jobs could and should be kept here in the US (for those of us living in the US). I know many people, anime fans or not would love job opportunities to open up if major companies just keep their international staff internationally. Anyways, check up on the article if you'd like.
Labels: business
Looks like as of a few minutes ago, the House of Representatives passed the new, revised $700 Billion bailout plan 263-171. Though much better than the ridiculous plan proposed by Paulson and Bush, still I bet some people will be questioning if this will be a plan for them or just the 1% of the country that has more than $100,000 in the bank. I listened in to the hearing and I was glad to hear the house actually bashing Wall Street CEOs for their obvious mess ups (lets not forget the greedy Realtors who bumped up house prices beyond anyone's reach). I didn't get to read the entire new bill that I believe can be read at
house.gov but stuff like pushing for more money into green businesses for new jobs, the hope of credit flow to small and private businesses (not just the idiots on Wall Street), tax breaks for business owners who keep jobs here, tax breaks for many homeowners, and renegotiations for homeowners in trouble seem to be what is needed. Thankfully they claimed that this will erase those CEO "golden parachutes" but we'll see about that in the coming months. The FDIC limit increase I feel is not really necessary since again, only 1% of Americans even reach the old $100,000 mark in the bank, but at least the horrible bottle-feeding, trickle down economics plans of Bush and Paulson was somewhat stopped. This maybe shows that this country is not a communist/socialist country as of yet but it sure is coming close to with the minority rich still having too much of a say over everyone else. I'll admit I got a bit of worries about this but I was about to pack my bags for Japan if the first bill passed. If McCain comes into office or if Obama blows it...I'll have to rethink that plan again.
-State your feelings of the whole economy, your story or what ever below.
-Images above copyright Russmo and Scott Adams,
www.russmo.com, www.dilbert.comLabels: business, economy
Looks like my comments about the US economy got me on the front page of
businessweek.com! My anime business and my old health business got me to realize different sides of the financial spectrum and as some of you know, many of us (including myself) were furious about that now failed Paulson $700 bailout plan that was going give the crooks who stole from the US the money back. I know this isn't really otaku related but I would assume that man of you can't avoid the news on it so I''m extra happy to see that my comments got me to the front page of the biggest business site on the web. You have to be living under a rock to not know that the US economy is in the crapper. Caused by the nepotism between Wall Street and the government, greedy Real Estate agents and loan sharks and an overpriced and overrated college system that teaches everyone to be worthless 9-5 cubical-slaves, this economy was just a house of cards that was ready to fall. All isn't doom and gloom though; one of my anime wholesalers, Diamond Comics did a report on the increase in sales anime and collectible goods and the turnout at the New York Anime Festival 2008 sure doesn't show signs of a recession there. Thankfully the internet has given all of us a voice and I'm very humbled and honored that I'm featured on the front page of one of the biggest business sites in the world. I of course commented about the incompetence of Treasury Secretary Paulson. Here's my entire comment:
"Secretary of Treasury Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, turned the company's $30 Billion debt into $100 Billion. The guy is not even qualified to count your cash as a teller at any bank let alone come up with anything that deals with money or in this case, have the US taxpayers write him a blank check. The guy hardly qualifies enough to flip burgers since there would need to be someone there to make sure he doesn't miscount the orders!"
Link to the comment here.
Labels: business
Looks like things are starting to finally pay off in my anime business. As of a few days ago I finally got the capital needed to put the nails on my job's coffin. Chuck's Anime Shrine matched 2007's gross sales in late April and early May, and with a goal of $10,000/week sales in the next few weeks, 2008's numbers will be looking very nice with 2009's profits all the more sweeter. A recent deal with Japanese manufacturer, Milestone is going to upgrade the business from anime retailer to anime wholesaler and even BusinessWeek wants to get an idea on what I'm doing with a future excerpt from me and a little featured deal. If it wasn't for my involvement in Amway, I would have never thought of diversifying myself, getting free from my job and being truly happy. As I'm hammering the nails to the coffin that holds my college-degree job, I'll probably return to more involvement in Amway since, lets face it, royalty income is the way to go and no MLM is better for it.
Hope that adds some lemon juice and salt in the wounds the naysayers of Amway got from their boss whipping them for being 1 minute late to their job.
Labels: anime, business
Congrats to Cathy Cross for becoming an IBO ^_^Ok, most people know me as the anime loving otaku who was part of the Anime Music Video movement a few years back that lead to all those crazy AMVs you see on youtube. As of last year some people will also note that I turned my high school anime fandom into a anime figure business that will have me completely out of the job world by next month or before my 25th birthday in November. I will also make sure everyone knows that I'm a proud Amway/Quixtar IBO. Most of my 2-3 year time off on my anime site is thanks to my involvement in Amway. It can also be thanks to the stupid job I had at Friendly's Ice Cream here in Selden, NY... that also made me realize that I was feeding the mentally challenged. Now I simply work for one at my college-degree job of at a certain camera store as the website bitch..I mean co-webmaster. A Flash series is oh so needed to depict the utter stupidity of the common folk in this area and my current boss at BB.
After working with people in my job and in Amway I've come to the conclusion that many many people are simply tools to society. We are forced to believe that a college education is the key to the finacial and overall success in life. Check out my previous posts, the most successful people in the world, the successful youtube generation entrepreneurs like myself and plain old common sense and you'll see that's a bunch of smoke and mirrors. The reality is that many people end up working for the rest of their life for a few jobs they don't want to be in. They will rush to work and cause car accidents and needless traffic congestion because their boss will practically ass-rape them if they arrive at 9:01.
Today's society and economy can be depicted like lemmings falling off the cliff because the other ones did ahead of them did, too. The lemmings being society and the ones ahead of them being their parents before them. Otaku and the youtube generation has seen enough of our parents fall victim to common stupidity as you can easily see across the net. People who have put down Amway, Mary-Kay, anime, the internet and the like are going to be extinct in the next 20 years as the youth of America and the world today realizes they've been duped to be nothing but my oh so favorite coined-by-me word, cubical-slaves.
Oh, and don't be surprised if you find me at Comic-Con, the Tokyo Game show, on the G4 network and other famous otaku places in the world drinking my XS Energy drinks and eating an Amway meal bar. Being an entrepreneur in my companies proves I'm no fool and nobody's tool and I would probably be right if most of my otaku friends also agree with that, too.
-Image thanks to
business week's take on Amway. Look through the comments for "Chuck G." That's me
Labels: amway, business, personal thoughts
Back in March of 2007,
U.S. News created a headliner that I was waiting for a while to see. The topic, Is College Worth It? In it, they finally questioned the multi thousands of dollars it takes to get a degree in a shaky and simply pathetic job market. (This post might upset many parents and generation X'ers but the question had to be asked and as of this posting date...it must be addressed even more with the state of the economy.)
College many years ago was originally meant to serve as an extra curricular in life's path. It was for people who wanted to become scholarly and to help progress the movement of human knowledge, science and technology. The same holds true today with many colleges doing just that but their M.O. sure has changed. From Kindergarten to 12th Grade, kids are wired with the fantasy that in order to be successful in life, they need to know what "job" they need to get and they need to work hard for college to get that job.
Frankly, colleges today and the whole school system is nothing but a factory for cubical slaves and dynamically changing resumes. Many kids are driven into the notion that if they go through college, they will get the so-called "good-job" and make tons more money than their non-graduated class-mates. Granted many people who don't go to college usually set for low-end jobs that barely go over $30K a year while the graduates will make it to a job paying $60K-150K a year, whether that job will last in today's market is another story but lets give them the benefit of the doubt.
This looks very good for college if you only take that info into notion, which many kids are cornered into believing, hence they feel that their $60K investment for $60K a year or more is really worth it.
Lets look though at the riches people in the world; Bill Gates, Michale Dell, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, etc. They must have triple Ph D's based on what college teaches, right? Wrong! Most of the richest, most successful people in the world never went to or graduated college and not one of them has a job! The thing is the topic that is not really mentioned at all in school is being in business for yourself. Kids in school are taught that you can make it in a business but its more of a lottery chance of winning in that field, or so they say.
What about business colleges? Usually business ownership is not mentioned all too much there, too. Most of the time business majors fall into the trap of becoming business "managers" FOR a company, but never the actual OWNER of the company.
One thing you are taught in business school or just by simple common sense that doesn't require a degree, is the topic of ROI (Return On Investment). With today's job market the ROI is not in college's favor at all. Why pay $60K and 4+ years of school work to get a degree, get a job and then watch that job fall no matter your position? No business owner in their right mind would dare such a risky investment. It's simply not worth it! But... if you do good in school and get lots of scholarships, college would be a great choice still because of the networking potential for your own eventual company and the lessened financial stress. It would then let you start off in a much better place than others but please don't sell out to a job.
Working for someone is extremely limited and many young kids and teens see the stresses having a job has done to their families. The internet has made it much easier to run your own company while at work. Also, if you are a business owner making $500K a year and with time to spare the difference between a ditch digger making $30K a year and a computer consultant making $80k/year is 3 weeks pay!
I'll use my example: I graduated college as a Computer Science major in New York. I upgraded my job from an ice cream scooper at Friendly's to a programmer and web master at a large photography outlet (would have been a big company in the city but those positions where outsourced to India while in college.)
On Long Island, a $40K salary won't even get you out of your birth house. As of today I run an anime and video game business and in one week's time I make 2x-3x my job's income a week in only two days work, not 40 hours with 10 hours wasting expensive gas with the rest of the masses. I also work with a ::gasp:: network marketing company that will eventually build more residuals than even my conventional business will. Did it take a college degree to do these business venture?...nope. My anime website turned business was originally made in my 12th grade web design class I took to pass the time since I was technically already graduated at the end of 11th grade. My job and my businesses don't even deal with a single thing I was taught in college. So to be blunt, college was a money-trap scam... for me.
Why isn't this talked about much, why is it taboo?There are a few reasons.
First reason is that college professors can't teach what they don't know. Ever heard the statement 'A' students teach 'B' students who work for 'C' students.? Sad but it's mostly true. College professors for the most part teach out of theory and not experience. Yes, some were in the field but they most likely are not anymore and they used teaching as a fall-back. They don't know how to be successful (financially- and-time-for-their-family-speaking) so how in the world could they teach us?
Second reason this isn't mentioned. Well, how do you think many schools are payed (outside of tuition)...state and federal grants from tax payers. Who pays the most to Uncle Scam...I mean Sam? Employees do. Yes, a business owner will pay tons in taxes too, but the US constitution has benefits for people who run their own company. Why?, it creates jobs and is the only way to restore any economy. People who don't understand it call them "loopholes" for the rich but any person in the US can access them, rich or poor. Letting out such knowledge in high school and college will lower their pay both from taxes and tuition from all the entrepreneurs bailing out of the college scene for a better chance at life.
Third reason is that it unfortunately has become a status symbol for parents to have their kids in college. They love to brag to their friends and their neighbors about their kids like they do their highly pesticided lawn. This has caused a generation or two of parents who force their kids into a college degree that really isn't in the best interest of the kids. Observe the multitude of students attending Suffolk Community College near my house with Liberal Arts majors and you'll see this in action. Yes, its great to brag about Jeff's wonderful degree he got in law but he sells insurance during the day and bar tends at night to hopefully pay the college debt.
As a parent, I'd be upset they wasted their time and money. When my father left his job to run his own automotive business from home, his family was shocked and asked him stupid questions like "You should have a job and make some real money." or, "Is it legal what you are doing?" His parents lost their bragging rights to the neighbors but my father was able to run a business from home that he could support a stay-at-home wife with 8 kids and no mortgage...on Long Island! Those are worthy of bragging rights!
Basically you all have gotten my views on college and hopefully people will start to see the obvious that they are being doped into a failed system which hopefully will let colleges just be their for the betterment of humanity and not cubical factories!
Let me know your opinions and comments.
Labels: business, college, investments, money
