My name is Charles Barr, and I am a small business owner in Columbus, OH. I own a very small insurance and financial services agency. My business is doing well, although I am very far from wealthy. I had a part time employee for a while, but had to let her go due to the cost. What I found astounding, is the amount of bureaucracy in order to employ just one person. Add to that the costs, above and beyond the actual wage to the employee, and you will see that we have a system designed to prevent growth in our businesses.

First, I want to say that we, as conservatives have not done an effective job communicating exactly why our principles are right, and the leftists are wrong. The majority of the American people do not understand that every dollar in every person's pocket is the result of wealth generated in the private sector of the economy. When we can effectively communicate that the government does not generate wealth, and that it can only take money from the private sector through taxation, then we will be on the right track.

Another problem we have, is the mentality that businesses exist for the sole purpose of employing people. This of course is laughable, as I can tell you that MY business exists for the sole purpose of generating profit and let me be the first to tell Joe Biden, that PROFIT IS PATRIOTIC! After all, what is wealth? Is it bad? I guess to answer that you have to ask yourself, what is the opposite of wealth? That would be poverty. So if profit and wealth are bad, then poverty is good? Let's see who can sell that idea!

It is distressing to see that people are not at all concerned that we are heading toward socialism. Perhaps they think that punishing the nation's employers will somehow create MORE jobs. I'd like to see the rationale behind that! Oh, and government jobs don't count, as they are funded by tax dollars from the private sector. We've been throwing around the word Socialism lately, which is a good thing I think. The problem is that many people don't understand what it entails.

We need to think of it as a system, having been tried in nearly every country EXCEPT our own. Where has it landed us? Squarely on top. In other words, American Exceptionalism is the direct result of a free market capitalist society, where each individual is free to succeed on his own merit, limited only by the depths of his own determination and imagination. That is the American dream. I heard on the radio today that Venezuela (yes, the communist utopia of Venezuela) is having great difficulty providing electricity to its people. We're talking about a once vibrant country, and this is what Socialism has achieved for them. No thanks, I'll pass. I like electricity.

So, is this my success story? Not really. I'm getting by. I have a wife and a daughter and another daughter due in December. Being a business owner, I have a flexible schedule but believe me, I work very hard and very long hours. Being a business owner has also opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of entrepreneurship. Before I opened my agency I had always held a job with a "guaranteed" paycheck. Weathering through the storm of uncertainty and financial difficulties has made me very strong and confident in business and being a business owner is very liberating to say the least.

Soon I will be hiring an employee again. This time however, I will be ready. I know now that in order to create one single job, I need to make much more profit that I had previously thought. This is what the liberals do not understand. There is an INSEPARABLE LINK between PROFIT and JOB CREATION. I know, because I've done it. To mandate any employer to provide health insurance to their employees is pure economic suicide, period. To raise taxes on anyone during trying economic times is unwise to say the least.

The Employee Free Choice Act, and the Global Poverty Act are two more horrific ideas for the American economy. When I think about these ideas of Obama, quite frankly it makes me cringe. It's not rocket science, it's easy to see the detriment to our society.

I think if we can communicate these ideas to the American public then we will be OK. Capitalism is like Rock and Roll. It will never die. The liberal democrats have effectively tied our economic woes to conservatism, but this is not based in reality and we know it. But how do we solve it? Do we have the big benevolent government swoop in and save us? Uncle Sugar to the rescue? Or do we do what we've always done in the past, which is work our way out of it. There is nothing shameful about hard work and the doom-and-gloomers that we listen to every day should be ashamed of themselves. It is just plain un-American to have this much of a defeatist attitude.

Charles Barr
Columbus, OH
barragent1@yahoo.com