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Did American domestic policy put you out of business, too!

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posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 03:28 AM
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I've been wanting to start this thread for a while now because I think it's important. It has to do with the complete destruction of my wealth and how it was done through lies and absolute theft.

I want everyone to consider this info constructively and not see it as a pity parade for me personally. While it is my story, I doubt it is unique. Again, I am not crying in my beer here, please don't take it as such. I'll try to be brief on each topic and lay down the general facts. Any specific interest in further details can be Q & A as they arise. What I've faced in the last four years is cruel, unfair and admittedly hard to believe. I promise that nothing I say will be exaggerated in any way.


I've worked as an Auto Body Technician/Custom Painter from age 17 until my recent 40th birthday never in my life was I without a job and never once did I collect unemployment benefits from the state. My job was commissioned, so I only was paid for work I did. I bought my house at age 21 and could have afforded to buy two more. I never played hooky and believed that hard work was rewarded. From 1986-2003 I had worked for only four companies. In that time I made from $40k-$100k a year, my last few years being the lowest.

From around 2000 life was getting more difficult. I worked for an independent repair shop for 14 yrs. owned by a friend. He was getting burned out and was looking for a way out of the business. Though a costly divorce combined with depreciating economic times this was my best shot at my own place. I knew things were getting tougher, though I never expected what was about to take place in my life.

The current owner leased the space the shop was in. For nearly 20 years, we occupied two of the four 3200 sq.ft. units in an industrial building. The other two units were leased to another company and earning rent. I proceeded to make an asset purchase of my friends company as well as purchasing the entire building from our soon to be ex landlord. The business plan reflected, among other positive forward looking statements, rents alone from our neighboring tenants exceeded the total operating costs needed for property ownership. This was met with approval at the bank and I was officially in business for myself on Feb. 21, 2004.

Little did I know, but this was the beginning of the end. What I'm getting at though is it didn't have to be. My financial destruction came due not to economic downturn, but from dirty banking practices, crooked insurance companies, rising utility costs and interest rate increases.

Auto body and paint repair wages have been suppressed by insurance companies for years. Mechanical repair rates once equal to, now more than double that of auto body repair. Collision shops also differ regarding vast increases in utility and paint material costs. My heating gas for a 3200 ft. paint area have gone from $1200, on average in cold months, to a new average of $3700 per month. This is only the paint area. I also have a 3200 ft. collision repair area and a 400 ft. office. New 10%-20% increases for 2009 have been reported for heating gas as well as electric and water & sewer. My average telephone bill was $90 in 2005 and now never less than $400. What's worse is these figures are not fair comparisons. My gross sales in 2004/2005 were $495,000 and $438,000 respectively. Sales for 2006/2007 were only $325,000 and $260,000 respectively. This is outrageous and unsustainable. George W. removed any oversight to these crooks and we all are paying the price.



continued......



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 03:40 AM
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reply to post by Zerbst
 




As if that wasn't enough, insurers have an illegal method of depleting your workload called "steering". This is done by repeatedly terrorizing claimants with false statements regarding facilities not under their control. "Steering" potential work to insurer owned and/or controlled claim cost reducing shops and away from quality independent repair facilities. Some of you reading this have probably experienced this. They employ various deceptive methods from falsely claiming no guarantees to accusing shops of purposely damaging vehicles to pad repair costs. Redlining, slander and steering have cut workloads to shops like mine as much as 95%. Though illegal as it is, fighting a large insurance company is futile. They pay to play and no small industry has a chance. Currently they have begun infecting the estimating software companies that research fair operating procedures and calculate time studies for estimate programs. They hope to influence these studies to lower repair procedure hours to further diminish our ability to make a profit.

Finally there is the banking system. I have gone through three major banks for my business accounts and all have contributed to my downfall. All use confusing methods of causing overdraft and non sufficient fund fees. They would hold deposits up to three days without processing, when checks arrived that could overdraw the account, they would be processed first causing them to bounce. They then would process the deposits that preceded the checks by days and collect their fees. This was intentional and cost me thousands of dollars a year. I pleaded and contested this constantly, but nothing comes of it. You must understand, in my business, you come out of pocket to repair these cars for insurance claims. Sometimes tens of thousands every week. Insurance checks are stalled as long as possible and usually come from 2-8 weeks after delivery of vehicle. Without cooperation from banks this cannot be avoided.

As a small business I faced difficulty at every turn. It was as if these industries that once played important roles of support, have turned on us and became the very cause of our demise. This has cost me everything. I've lost my home, industrial property, business and every dollar I had. All stolen from me, not from Nafta or outsourcing, but from America corporate greed. How is this happening and nobody seems to care?



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 04:57 AM
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i feel bad for you man, i don't want to sound like a heartless sorta person for disrespecting your hard work, etc but...

America and the west have been enjoying inflated wages and profit margins for a long time now, the real price of utilitys has been hidden and the cost of living or operating a business has been suppressed - by manipulating world markets and basically enslaving the economys of other nations we in the west have enjoyed unrivaled opulence.

The kids at work in factories in africa who get paid a penny for every hundred footballs they stitch, the entire towns devoted to making plastic toys to be given away with breakfast and the millions of people around the world down holes collecting the metal which will get used to make something so pointless it'll be thrown back in the ground less than a week after its first used - all these people have been subserdising your life.

The way i visualize it is the entire price of something is like a spring fixed to the wall at either end, at the moment it's as if someone has gripped the spring in the center and pulled it so that one half is very tightly compressed and the other is stretched almost as far as it can go - the gap between the coils is the profit, the side which is compressed is under a lot of pressure and if that manipulator were to let go would spring back with great force. You have been lucky to have been on the right side of the spring and your overly opulent business venture was blessed by the hand of global imperialism.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, if it makes you feel better i have been enjoying the benefits of living in the evil empire and the collapse of our system will probably force me to get a proper job too, sux.

I'm not saying the manipulator has let go but his arm is getting tired, other manipulators are trying to pull the spring in their direction (er, yeah i think we should just assume it's a hyperdimensional super spring) and he's having to fight off the world with his other hand in a deadly game of mercy. hehe ok i think i've worn that metaphore out now, hope you get what i'm trying to say.

the price of tat is bound to increase for western nations, certainly as more nations try to imitate our opulence the pressure on the spring will only increase, just how strong is that manipulator?

Over all it's a good thing for the world, with everyone working together fairly and without manipulation we'll have a more stable system from which to produce robots, space ships and culture - it might seem like a terrible thing for some of us but in the long run you'll be glad the world changed.

or then again, the glass half full kind guy that i am - the collapse could be too much for people to handle, imagine the leaders of nations acting like the german billionair who killed himself under a train or the guy who slit his wrists at his desk - lets hope they don't push any big red buttons.

oh yeah and i forgot to say, the people on the side of the spring with lots of profit don't want to loose theirs so when they're finding it hard to keep the pressure on sometimes they have to grab the spring a little further down so that there are less rings on the lucky side, in stead of splitting the profit between 10 they're splitting it between 5 - you must have been unlucky to have been in the middle section.


[edit on 8-1-2009 by NatureBoy]



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 02:49 PM
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reply to post by NatureBoy
 


i think i get what you're saying? basically, when things tighten up like they are now, those that you may have depended on previously to thrive end up stepping on your head to maintain their own position. dog eat dog. if that's the case, it should be stopped. don't you see? slowly but surely there are more and more laws and less and less freedom. not for all, ONLY FOR SOME!

what is currently going on in the small biz world, at least in my area, is literally criminal. i run a honest business and provide a first rate service to my customers. my reputation is stellar and i'm well known in my area. last year we were voted one of the top 3 auto customization shops in metro detroit in a channel 4 news best businesses contest. my shop is wanted and needed here and would thrive on a level playing field. that's free market!

the fact that greed has been nurtured to the point it becomes criminal should not be tolerated. this is the point i want to make. if we write off situations like mine as simple "luck of the draw" failures, or "better luck next times", we only further the problem. if someone puts a gun to your temple and steals from you, that's treated as an outrage. if chase bank massages your business account out of thousands a year, that's treated as unfortunate. theft at gunpoint="no way! something must be done!" theft at chase's deceit="nothing you can do. that's the way it goes." this is a big problem.

lately i've been asking people about the bail out scandal. most are completely unconcerned about it? it's accepted as one of those things? "duh...o well, whadda ya gunna doo?" it's treated as unfortunate, not outrageous? how can this be? these are the very same people that create a scene at a restaurant over a dirty fork. dirty forks are treated as outrageous and can only be rectified by the firing of the fork washer! or at least some free food? your PUBLIC SERVANTS are burying your great grand children in debt! "oh well, that's politicians for ya. no point getting upset over it."

this makes me ashamed of my country! it must stop!



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 04:36 PM
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reply to post by Zerbst
 


oh i quite agree, the way the world works is as it stands is criminal - if you believe what they say in south america coca cola have been killing the union heads who won't play ball, coca cola have been using all the water in asian villages for their canning factory and causing crops to fail, i could go on and on and on...

For a long time people, your customers and suppliers, have been living in a dream world of credit not available to most of the world - this is now gone, that means people can't afford as many things but it also means a lot of big companies are seeing their profits dry up as well, they've been so used to screwing over most the people in the world that of course they're going to do it to us.

We can't really do anything about it, sooner or later the whole system will crash and everyone will have to start again thats just how it works, be honest with yourself would you rather live in a fair world and give up the massive advantage messing up the other half of the world gives us OR would you rather be on the lucky side of the coin?

This isn't about defeating some Satan worshiping international banking cartel, that would be far too easy, to solve this problem we would need for everyone in the world to stop being lazy, selfish and greedy -that isn't going to happen any time soon, its probably not even possible for the world to be fair.

We could try to move in the right direction, try to educate people to the problems with the world but that often causes as many problems as it creates, the nazis and the soviets both wanted to create a fair world and the jews, muslims and christians have spent the last 2000 years fighting about who has the right answer.

In the long run robots will make us all redundant anyway, i look forward to that day - the end of work, everything you want made and delivered by robotic helpers. Capitalism won't last, a society which gives the power to whoever is willing to go to the greatest lengths to get it is crazy.

it's harsh but unless a lot of people loose their luxurys and opulence the world will never be fair.



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 10:24 PM
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reply to post by NatureBoy
 



coca-cola using up water and big pharma testing their poison on starving africans. such a mess.

we're definitely on the same page about this! i am excited to see it die no matter how painful. i stopped getting dewy over the material lunacy a long time ago. my idea of heaven on earth is a farm in the mountains with all my close people far from all of it. simple living is truly where it's at for me. i had to come full circle, but i guess that's how it works? you nailed it about trying to fix it! people just wont welcome changes. everyone has to get there on there own, i guess?

the world is way too far gone for repairs at this point. nothing less than a total reboot for sure. think we may very well get to see it!



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 10:36 PM
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reply to post by Zerbst
 





the world is way too far gone for repairs at this point. nothing less than a total reboot for sure. think we may very well get to see it!


Yup! I have been out of work for over seven months. My bank account went kapoot! I am officially out of the legal loophole now because I am unemployed and broke. Just wait cause it's all gonna come crashing down soon and there will be repercussions for those who created this mess. We won't accept the blame for what they did, it's downright criminal and as Americans it is our civil duty to protect this country from all enemies foreign and domestic.

[edit on 8-1-2009 by 12.21.12]



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 10:42 PM
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On second thought why don't the American People get together and file a class action law suit. These greedy corporate thieves keep getting richer, but whats there money gonna be worth when they are the only ones that have it. A financial system that creates more debt than there is money. We outta be pulling those criminals out of their seats in Congress physically.



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 10:52 PM
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Originally posted by 12.21.12
reply to post by Zerbst
 





the world is way too far gone for repairs at this point. nothing less than a total reboot for sure. think we may very well get to see it!


Yup! I have been out of work for over seven months. My bank account went kapoot! I am officially out of the legal loophole now because I am unemployed and broke. Just wait cause it's all gonna come crashing down soon and there will be repercussions for those who created this mess. We won't accept the blame for what they did, it's downright criminal and as Americans it is our civil duty to protect this country from all enemies foreign and domestic.

[edit on 8-1-2009 by 12.21.12]



amen brother, hang in there. it's an opportunity to discover what matters in life. it's also true freedom! i never felt freer than i do now.



posted on Jan, 8 2009 @ 11:48 PM
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America is NOT the land of opportunity that it once was.

Taxes, regulations, insurance, multiple government ruling bodies (Each with thier own special set of stupid rules), lawyers, swindlers, competition, media, stupid customers, banks, bills, credit, employees, ... Screw it.

We're the most over regulated, over taxed, disfunctional, propagandized 1st world society on the planet.

It's complete chaos and every man for himself.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck Zerbst . I'm sure you'll end up on your feet. Hard working people always do.

On a more positive note. They were organizied enough to bring it down.




[edit on 9-1-2009 by In nothing we trust]



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:04 AM
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It is a slow controlled implosion of just about every self employed individual in America. Why? Because they can't control those who have no needs or wants. Take away any chance of self viability, and sustenance, and then they have the whole nation under their control.

You do as they say in order to feed your family and live in their govt owned (mortgage) house. Simple really, but all to devious for most to see through.

Better prepare now, because it will get much, much worse.

However, the Sun will still come out tomorrow, and you can bet your bottom dollar, because that will be all you will have left.

Sorry that happened to you, but in the final count, all that will matter is THIS!



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:07 AM
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Billy Graham?
Any way we can trade him in for food or something?



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:14 AM
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Originally posted by 12.21.12
Billy Graham?
Any way we can trade him in for food or something?


Food will only sustain your body. Spiritual food will sustain your spirit and your eternal soul.

I tell what I know to be the only answer...but hey I have had Angels intervene in my life and I'm blessed beyond most!



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:16 AM
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LOL. Sorry I couldn't resist.

Glad it's not Billy Graham though. I would be disappointed.



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:23 AM
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man i am sorry for your misfortune. but it seams that all of this is so common place here in this day and age. The other day my wife and i got our utility bill for last month and it had increased 100% from this time last year i would like to know how these companies expect people to pay there utilities when they are almost as much as some peoples mortagages. mines was over 300.00$ last month, this crazy they added some kind of surge charge to our bill that what the hell is the bill for when the surge charge is as high as the bill itself. i'm to the point i just quit caring when companies go on tv crying i need a bailout becuase i stole from people and misappropriated funds and stole peoples retirement , just remember what the good book says , the meek shall inherit the earth. hope you the best in staying afloat that is all we can do. crawgator



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:26 AM
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This is how the free market works. Giant corporations are allowed to rob the individual blind, and the government refuses to do their job in combating fraud.

Insurance is nothing but private sector tax, that regulates small businesses to death so that giant corporations are able to take over their markets.

By writing the rules as obtuse as possible, huge amounts of the process wind up being questionable in a court of law, where those with the most money are bound to win.

The free market is a big con job, and I hope people are finally waking up to this.



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:45 AM
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I understand where you are at perfectly.

We are in the asphalt maintenance business. This coming May would be our 6th year in business. Our first three years were decent, not fabulous but decent enough for us to move to a nicer house and after paying off almost all debt moving to a house twice the size of where we were was a lateral move financially.

When we purchased our house, our mortgage broker noticed that we did not take many of the deductions that we could have on our taxes and advised that we should amend them after we close. He said people do it all the time and our CPA agreed.

So we did. Two months later I began to receive letters from my mortgage company telling me that they had reviewed my loan and that my taxes did no match the records that I had given them. I called and explained and the local manager said that all I had to do was send a letter from the CPA stating that we had amended our tax returns. I did that. And called...and called and called...no response. When we finally did find someone to speak to, they said that wasn't good enough and that they could not sell the loan therefore we owed the entire balance. We tried to refinance and could not because of the fees they wanted there was not enough equity in the house to cover it. It was an 8 month battle (which I am sure you can imagine what that did for a self employed person). I finally called my attorney and one letter from them finally shut them up after I received something saying that even if we sent payments they were going to begin to decline our payments and force us into default.

Then the economy began to decline. Our last two years in business have been terrible. We rely on property managers, business owners, capital money, etc for business to do maintenance on their property. At this point in the economy...uh..what capital money?

Not to mention that our area is over run with "travelers" (aka gypsies) that do terrible work at insane prices and then the local customers trust no one.

Contributing to our downfall in these last few months is that wonderful banking system that you mention. Every deposit that we made had an *11* day hold on it. All that did was put us more and more behind every time we deposited a check. But I notice that the checks that I *write* go through with lightening fast speed..as opposed to the ones I put in which take nearly two weeks to clear.

If things weren't bad enough, we lost close to $100,000 in contracts toward the end of 2008 that would have carried us through the middle of 2009 sometime. Gone. No one has the money. And if they have the money, they aren't spending it.

Our family had to take up a new craft just to keep the lights on. We started making soap and personal care products.

Foreclosure was imminent in November and I finally filed bankruptcy just to keep the house through the holidays and not have to pack up the kids (we have 5 in ages from 10 down to 1) I expect the lights to go off any day. The gas will be turned off shortly as will my phone (not good for business, but what do you do?). After putting out 200-300 job applications between my husband and myself and only receiving *2* calls back....it really feels...bleak.

We owe everybody money. Vendors that we get our supplies from, etc...and I can't do anything but look at them and shrug.
On February 5th or shortly after, we will find out if the mortgage company will even work with us but they don't have to. After that..I don't know unless by some miracle those contracts that "postponed" until the spring come off of a down payment.

I'm not trying to tell a sob story either...believe it or not...painting an accurate picture of where we are at.

::edited:: to add that as far as insurance goes...our business insurance is completely staggering. It will cancel here shortly. My house insurance has lapsed. My car insurance has lapsed. The only reason my insurance card is in my vehicle now is in case I get stopped so I won't get a ticket for that

[edit on 9-1-2009 by jenmckin]



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 12:45 AM
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reply to post by poet1b
 



You say "free market" but talk about regulations and hoops to jump through; do you see the contradiction?


Let me remedy that for you, we don't have a free market. Pick up a book and go figure out what a real free market is, it'll do you some good.

[edit on 1/9/09 by aava]



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 01:32 AM
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reply to post by crawgator406
 



if you look back to juniors first few months in office, you find his shameful domestic policy moves. he worked fast and hard to lift regulations and oversight programs freeing up the constraints of these giant banks and corporations. that legislation was the only protection smaller industries had to keep them off. with the inmates running the institution, it becomes a free for all allowing a feeding frenzy of monopolization. knowing consumers wont push back and fight for quality in their marketplace, they cheat, steal, pollute and literally devastate all they touch.

they replace quality jobs, goods and services with slave wages and inferior imported products. even after devastating hundreds of thousands of lives of hard working people, still nobody fights? still shopping at walmart and paying taxes to the crooks that allowed it all. what will it take? have people lost the nerve to stand up for what is right? stop conforming! stop buying..stop driving..stop working..stop everything and watch how powerful they really are. we hold the power if we can find the nerve to show it!



posted on Jan, 9 2009 @ 01:52 AM
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Originally posted by poet1b
This is how the free market works. Giant corporations are allowed to rob the individual blind, and the government refuses to do their job in combating fraud.

Insurance is nothing but private sector tax, that regulates small businesses to death so that giant corporations are able to take over their markets.

By writing the rules as obtuse as possible, huge amounts of the process wind up being questionable in a court of law, where those with the most money are bound to win.

The free market is a big con job, and I hope people are finally waking up to this.


this is one of the only uses we have for federal government. provide us only enough oversight and regulation to keep the game fair and competitive. a true free market wont tolerate monopolies or lobbyists. in a free market you get no bailouts or second chances. you get greedy and cheat people at your own peril. you play by the same rules no matter the size of your company. you can't lower your operating costs with cheap imports when you have to compete. you certainly can't afford $16 million bonuses to failing CEO's. you survive on quality service and good reputation, not bribes and bathroom buddies. ( little larry craig ref. there.)

anything less than these basic principles is not a free market. we are so far removed from this people hardly remember it. this cannot be tolerated!







 
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