I built this business. I did. I. Built. This. Business.
I didn’t get a single loan. Not one.
I started it with a $60 tool I got as a Christmas present in the middle of a nearly fatal depression. A depression sparked in part because I could not find a job.
*I* built it.
I’m the example of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” trope. I don’t like that I am because that trope is harmful and usually impossible, but I was privileged enough to be able to do it.
The political party that loves defending itself with the words “small business owners” and “job creators” and “fiscal responsibility” are full of absolute complete vile dogshit.
Their tax bill will tax me for every last business expense, halting my business growth unless I get a predatory loan and sell myself to interest. Reminder: I started with that $60 tool gifted to me, but I’ve had to buy every last tool since from the profits of the wares I made with the available tools beforehand.
Every. Last. Tool.
That’s roughly $40,000 of business I’ve bought myself to start a business and create a job for myself.
That’s roughly $40,000 of money I’ve put into other American makers who create tough, dependable machines and hand tools.
That’s roughly $40,000 I’ve used to buy parts of builds from other American creatives, collaborating with them to build something really special and new.
My money. My profit. My business expenses, usually made tax deductible so small businesses can not just get a leg up starting, but survive.
These fuckers want to tax me and end me and my business so huge (HUGE!) corporations and billionaires can get a little break.
And it’s not just me. Other small business owners, too. And students. They want to tax students for the scholarships and grants they get- money they never even got to touch.
For the Walmart CEO to feel safer. So people who never wear the same clothes twice can get a second jet. So billionaires can put more money into lobbying for billionaires.
While we starve. While we struggle. While we wear the same pair of jeans every day for 10 months until they wear out and rip because getting gas is more important than having two pairs of jeans.
They’re stealing all our bootstraps, giving them to the shamefully rich so they can sell them back to *some* of us at a sinful profit.
Where is your outrage, friend? Where is your class identity, neighbor? What have you done to us, representatives? Why are you silent, community?!
