Three years ago my wife quit her job and we forked over half our savings---and a promise to pay way more than we should---to buy a run-down roadside diner with 18 seats and a greasy counter. Neither one of us slept that night.
It was seventeen days after Barack Obama was elected President. The first American flag either of us ever owned was still planted on the front lawn of our first house, next to the first campaign yard sign we ever considered posting.
That sign read, “Hope.” We were thoroughly inspired. I wrote a couple embarrassingly exuberant diaries about it then, but not much since.
I’ve been very busy. Hope is hard work. And today we employ eight workers, each of whom earns $10 per hour or better. Half of them are part-time. Next month, we hope to start paying my wife her first wages in three years---she works 14 hour days, five days a week, and she’s acquired some mad skills.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far about job creating: it’s not what millionaires do. The wealthy study ways to slash their payrolls, liquidate pension plans and demand that their workers pee in cups.
Those of us who work to earn a living---so we can one day contribute the sort of taxes million-dollar income families should pay, and that would be almost all the rest of us---we’re the ones who create jobs.
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