Payroll Accounting – Are American Workers Lazy – Corporations Who Lay Off Older Workers

As an entrepreneur, actually a Founder of a franchising company, which later put units into 23-states serving some 450 cities, I always felt as if no one worked as hard as I did, indeed at times I felt they were just lazy. Of course, why should they work as hard as me, they didn’t own the company. But even the franchisees who did own their own company never worked as hard as I did, well, that’s not really true, a few certainly did, and yes, they were always my favorite. I always liked to help those who helped themselves.Not long ago, I was having an argumentative conversation with a gentleman over the unemployment issues plaguing our nation, and over labor unions and such. When I explained my observations over some 20-years of franchising, he was un-amused and stated that the unemployed needed our help and extended benefits past 100-weeks.Indeed, I told him that it was a mistake to keep paying people NOT to Work! Further it would raise unemployment withholding in the future, completely problematic for the cost of labor. He retorted that; “I’ve heard businesses lay off the old to hire the new, because they save money in benefits and wages etc.”Okay, yes, in many companies this is the case, as they can get a new graduate or 3 who are smarter and work harder for the price of one old timer. But the company’s assert they are more productive for the dollar, which is probably true in many cases, not all. But many of those old timers start their own consulting firms or free-lance too if they are in the top 1-5%, if not, then perhaps they are being replaced because they didn’t apply themselves or give their all?Of course, throwing away an old timer for a young buck who has no family or obligations yet, seems so unfair, but a business has to remain efficient, and you can just take one look at the payroll accounting reality to see the extended costs of benefits, pensions, sick-leave, health insurance, etc. to see what’s happening here.You see, in my thinking if you are in the top 1-5% and you are that good, you’ll find work in that sector. In a way it is lazy to think that you don’t have to work hard because you’ve arrived, this is why most great entrepreneurs are not so successful second time around. They forget from hence they came and the hard work it took to get there.Still many will say that the unemployed, well it’s not their fault and many are underemployed when they go back to work, that is to say completely over-qualified for the jobs they take while they look for work or a better, higher paying, and rewarding job. Yes, I suppose so, but they need to take the job to feed their family or according to the obligations and debt that they’ve previously CHOSEN to accept, whose fault is that? Not the taxpayer after those unemployment benefits (insurance) runs out. Please consider all this.