Biggest Impediment to Job Growth?

What's the biggest impediment to job growth in the U.S.? The government. So says the co-founder of Home Depot, Bernie Marcus.

Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.

Talk to pretty much any business owner and you'll hear the same thing. Obama routinely talks about the need to create jobs, when his policies have the opposite effect. That's why he has to resort to using imaginary numbers when talking about jobs he's supposedly created or saved.

Anti-religious Hypersensitivity

Over at the Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta has a post up called, "Who Knew Schlotzsky’s Deli Was a Christian Franchise?" Apparently someone went into a deli and got upset because Christian music was being played. He actually wrote a letter of complaint to the corporate website, which referred it to the the franchise owner. The owner, obviously a Christian, was unimpressed by the complaint and essentially told the former customer to get over it. 

I often agree with Mehta's posts on atheist/religious issues, but I think he's way off-base on this one.  

Is it an overreaction? I don’t think so. It wasn’t just one song and it is annoying to hear if you’re not a Christian (hell, it’s probably annoying even if you are).

Yes, it was a huge overreaction. I've been in many restaurants where I wasn't happy with the musical selection being played -- for whatever reason. I didn't write whining complaints to the restaurant, and neither do most people. If it's that annoying, I just go to another restaurant. Writing of the owner's dismissive response, Mehta says

I’m offended by his response…To summarize, Wood is going to continue to play Christian music whether it makes his customers happy or not. Their experience at his restaurant be damned.

I find that laughable. He's not ignoring his "customers" plural, he's ignoring the complaint of one hypersensitive customer looking to take offense.

Wood is allowed to play whatever music he wants to, but playing Jesus music all day long is certainly not the way to draw in more customers. Next thing you know, he’ll be giving discounts to people who bring in church bulletins.

That's a pretty big assumption. Somehow I doubt that Mehta knows more about running that business than the business owner. Giving discounts for church bulletins would probably be quite popular in some areas. 

This kind of individual makes atheists look bad. No one likes easily-offended whiners. Even though I'm an atheist, and the deli owner sounds like a major Bible-thumper, I applaud him for telling off the whiner. Some customers aren't worth having.

Another Case Against Sanctions

I generally oppose the use of sanctions, which are essentially a projection of weakness. The use of sanctions sends the message that we don't like something, but we aren't really serious about doing anything about it. It's a half-measure that avoids making tough decisions, and allows politicians to pretend they are actually addressing a foreign policy issue. Sanctions on Iran are particularly pointless, since they will be undercut by Russia and China, among others. This week U.S. business groups, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Foreign Trade Association present another argument against sanctions.

the proposed sanctions "could prohibit any U.S. company from transacting routine business with critical partners from around the globe even if these transactions have no bearing on business" with the Islamic Republic.

"The proposals could have a large impact on the U.S. Export-Import Bank, precluding it from partnering with counterpart agencies abroad to co-finance U.S. exports that have no relation to Iran’s energy sector,"

Apparently sanctions could penalize businesses doing business with businesses doing business with Iran -- if that's not too confusing. I'm not sure if their argument is correct, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if sanctions had unintended consequences that ended up hurting U.S. business, while doing nothing to stop Iran's nuclear program.