I Got your REAL State of the Union right here

by Daniel J Becker (DOLB for the rest of you)

UPDATED BELOW.

Well, I thought being tonight is the big night for the President I would give my version of the SOU. This is an update on the flower shop. For any new readers, these are real numbers from an honest to goodness small business.

As you can see from the chart below, or maybe not, I don't need a loan. I don't need a tax break. I could use a real national health plan as the medical for this year again, including premiums hit $15K (16.5 and 17.7 prior 2 years). I have a high deductible plan that increased from $6471 in '06 to $7195 in 2009, 11% up.

No, even if you did the cash for clunkers again, I don't have the extra cash flow to take a loan. Though the delivery van has 235K miles on it. It's a 2002 Caravan.

All my loans are fixed, so I'm not worried about deficit fueled inflation as it relates to my monthly payments. My property, even with the 15% loss in the last 2 years based on tax evals is still 1.69 times more than my mortgages and I only have 15 or less years to go.

We're working with less people at the shop and have layed off our manager/worker (he's fast, a good designer and can carry the load when we're not there) to 1/2 time. We're watching every penny as to inventory, utilities, insurances (I'm getting money back on the WC because payroll is down).

What I'm worried about is this:

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http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-got-your-real-state-of-union-right.html

Without jobs and customers with money, there is no recovery. There is no need for small business loans, because nobody needs a loan. They need money.

Two years ago, I had a carry-out Italian joint. Things were going fine, but then the economy started to tank. People didn't have the money to splurge on a pizza on Friday. Our lunch customers started bringing their own lunches to work, instead of us delivering. Our evening customers were telling us that they just got laid off. Then the gas spike hit.

No customers with money=no business.

Amidst all the hullabaloo about the Great Mesmerizer givng yet again another great speech, it is nice to see some reality mentioned.

Like what OUR state of the union is like here on Main Street.

Very sobering picture here in the real world.