Then the Financial Tsunami Hit... Frontline report
Submitted by MichaelCollins on December 22, 2009 - 22:17This is a front line report on the class war. Edwin Girdle (The Colonel)
had an excellent business going until he needed a loan after the shock
of 2008. The banks that got billions weren't lending and there was no
help anywhere else in the "safety net." His story is compelling and
clear. Noted at Jerome Doolittle's blog at SmirkingChimp.com who first posted this and reprinted with Mr. Girdle's permission. Michael Collins
For three years I owned and operated a mini-market/gas station in a
Cincinnati, Ohio suburb. I bought an already existing store using all
the assets I had, including my 401K funds, after being down-sized from
my middle-management career of 22 years (in one of the many industries
which the U.S. can no longer keep onshore).
Things went along fairly well and the business grew as I acquired a
large clientele of regular customers from the local construction
companies, other business owners, and the Ford plant. My girlfriend and
I worked 90+ hour workweeks and, along with help from a few part-time
employees, we operated 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
In other words, I was a real practitioner of the kind of
free-enterprise capitalism that our windbag politicians and business
leaders praise to the heavens while making sure it doesn’t apply to
them.