The Tycoon Report

Think we live in a free society? Think again.

THERE ARE VERY FEW THINGS AS DISTURBING AS ARGUING WITH AN AGING HIPPIE.

I'm not talking about your smug friend from college who lives on the Upper West Side and quotes Neil LeBute plays as if they were gospel. The moment his daughter goes through puberty and really tests his boundary's he'll be watching Jerry Falwell at night searching for answers. Nope, I'm happen to be talking about hippies - real hippies.

You know the type. The kind who still drives that silly flower-power 21 Window Volkswagon Micro-Bus he drove in college ten years ago. The kind who has "evolved" so much that he scoffs at the idea of working a 9-5 job because "We weren't put here to be in a rat race. "The kind who eats granola by the truckload and shows off the hair in his wife's armpits.

Yea those people.

Well I have a news flash for you:You remember the conversation you had with that one hippie last summer at your friends BBQ?The one where he argued that most people who worked crazy hours primarily for the accumulation of money were really "commercial slaves. "Well Guess what? HE WAS RIGHT.

Confused yet? Let me explain:Something very disturbing happened in our nations capital this week. So disturbing that its mere occurrence has literally changed the way I think. No, I'm not talking about Bush actually believing that his number one fan is the most qualified woman in the country to sit on the Supreme Court.

Nor am I talking about how comfortable Tom Delay looked doing his perp-walk and smiling for his mug shot. Today I happen to be talking about arguably the worst law to hit this nations books in a generation. I'm talking about that brand new piece of brilliant legislation from Washington referred to as the new "bankruptcy" law. The same bankruptcy law that has made it virtually impossible to well, um. . . . file bankruptcy!

Now I don't want you to get the wrong idea. Accountability for your debts is a good thing. Especially with people that go on Paris Hilton-size shopping sprees without Paris Hilton-size bank accounts to pay for them. Those poor credit card companies who took their record earnings last year and pumped it into marketing to you should have a right to collect their money.

But there is another group of Americans at risk due to the new bankruptcy law. And that group, according to President Bush, is the backbone of this country. And there is a 60 percent chance that this group includes you.

Let me explain:

As I mentioned before, according to President Bush himself, 6 out of 10 people in American owe their jobs to "small" businesspeople. Those risk-taking entrepreneurs who fail 90 percent of the time when they start their companies. Yup, these people are literally the backbone of this economy.

But banks don't lend money to entrepreneurs that start their own companies. And angel investors generally don't invest unless the owner invests a lot of money personally or their is proof of concept.

So, where do 70 PERCENT of people trying to start a new business get their money from?You guessed it: Credit Card debt!

Now think about it for a moment:Let's say you're in your 40's and you decided to leave that soul- sucking 9 - 5 job you've had for the past decade to claim a piece of the American Dream and start your own company. You have a wife and two children and, like most people, between health care costs and education you have less money in the bank then you thought you would ten years ago.

But you have a dream. Maybe you want you want to start a home nursing company to take care of the growing population of the elderly. Or maybe even open up an online internet bookseller. Either way you've spent years during your commute to work studying the market.

You believe you can pull it off. But first you'll need to buy a new computer. Then you'll need to have your next door neighbors reclusive, pimply-faced, know-it-all nerd child build your website. Then you have to start marketing to get the word out.

Of course you have some money in the bank. But after much discussion with your wife you decide to hold onto that cash in case things go wrong.

Ultimately you decide to do what COUNTLESS SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS I KNOW HAVE DONE - YOU BORROW FROM YOUR LOCAL SHYLOCK, UM. . . I MEAN, CREDIT CARD COMPANY.

But as of this Monday you'll have to think twice. Because now, if you happen to be as astute a businessperson as our current President, you may very well fail at your new endeavor. And unless your parents have a rich network of friends to help you, you will not be able to start over again so easily.

Nope, as of Monday, your business failing would be almost like having a child support payments - you'll spend the rest of your life sending in payments to the credit card companies (but your new "child" will never even smile at you).

Maybe that extra burden every month will limit the schools you can send your children to. Or maybe it will force you to have to take a second job to pay for your sick mother who is five years away from Medicare eligibility. Like I said before - I'm not here to defend deadbeats.

BUT IT'S ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME SOMEBODY DEFENDED TWO OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO ALL AMERICANS: THE AMERICAN DREAM AND OUR ECONOMIC GROWTH.

You see, whether you succeed at your new venture or not, just the act of starting a new business and buying materials provides jobs for countless people (not to mention the entire lunchtime staff at Office Depot).

But many entrepreneurs I know - folks like a certain CEO friend of mine who runs a very successful $100 million dollar public company - couldn't have put his children at the risk he did. That's because he ran up $100,000 in credit card debt before his business started to take off. But if you happen to be like my former Republican friend you wouldn't have taken that risk.

Yup, our business friendly folks in Washington just passed the one law that could stunt economic growth in this country in a big way. From now on, anybody who takes that kind of risk and fails will spend the rest of his or her life working for the credit card companies to pay for their "mistake. "(While the rich keep getting larger and larger tax breaks).

Yup, last summer my granola-eating hippie friend was 100% right. What makes this country great - our economic freedom to take risks, fail and bounce back - has been permanently damaged. Our government has sold us into Commercial Slavery to the very same people who defy gravity year after year with record earnings. So, to those of us who decide to risk all on their vision of the American Dream and fail I have one thing to say to you:

Meet your new master: the credit card industry.