Why it Might Soon Suck to be Rich
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
The super villain standing between me and my millions.
Just today, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the Obama administration’s plan to attempt to regulate companies, securities, and hedge funds to, supposedly, prevent them from becoming “too big to fail” as is currently the case with AIG. However, that’s not all this proposal would do if passed.
Hidden amongst the general discussion of regulations and oversights, was one phrase that many people are overlooking: private equity funds. Under the administration’s proposal, any sources of capital, including these so-called private equity funds would be subject to government oversight and regulation.
What’s the problem with that, you might ask. The problem is that “private equity funds” literally means any source of private capital, including the capital held and managed by private companies. This would lead to a business culture where government and not the market would regulate how companies would operate.
Under this proposal, the government would have the power to force a privately held company (One not subject to current laws applied to publicly traded companies) to split if it got too large, pay it’s employees more, or even allow the government to set salary caps for any company that currently operates within America.
If this proposal is approved it would essentially take the “free” out of the free market; a prospect that I, as a hopeful millionaire, do not look too kindly on. If I reach my goal of making one million dollars, I will undoubtely have at least one successful company, and to imagine that I wouldn’t even be in control of that company, that the government could step in and change the very way I operate simply because they want to, is simply unacceptable. If these regulations ever come to pass, I’m not sure whether my dream of millions could ever come true, because it would no longer be within my power to make it happen.
Business owners, entrepreneurs, and all those who believe that they should be in charge of their own lives need to stand up for their rights now before the government forces you to sit down. Because this proposal isn’t about regulation it’s about strangulation. There are already regulations in place to prevent the events that occurred, the government simply didn’t utilize them. Since they’re not using the tools they already have at their disposal, it’s likely that the current proposal would do little to affect those large hedge funds and investment groups, and would do a lot to hurt the little guy trying to make his business and his life a success.
…I said I wanted insurmountable odds to overcome on my way to $1,000,000, looks like I might just get them.
-Nick