A visit from the NFIB today...
A very serious looking guy walks in to our office and asks if I'm the owner - no, he's right here - I say, and am entirely ignored for the remainder of the visit. He whips open his binder and starts pointing to pages and giving his pitch to my boss.
He's here to tell us some big things are coming - new regulations and fees that will make it next to impossible to have a small business. What kind of fees and regulations? All kinds, everything! State, or federal...? Both - the governor can't raise taxes, so they've got a whole package of new fees and fee increases planned for businesses. Fees on what? On everything - its all coming if we don't stop it. What do you think about that, do you think you should pay more fees? Well, no... Ok, and how do you feel about being forced to pay for health insurance for your employees next year if we don't stop Obamacare - that's not right for the government to do to you, is it? Well, no...
And the guy is writing things down on a form he's got with our company information on it, filling in spaces. How about this new workplace poster that highlights the rights to collective bargaining - that was going to be posted starting this month but we have it blocked up in the legislature. You don't think things would be better if you had a union to deal with, do you? Well, not really, but I've got a lot of work to do right now... Let me just go over a couple of things - look at this page with all of your partners in business who're helping us out [a sheet pasted-up with business cards from other businesses], can we put you on the list as a supporter? Sure, but I've got to get some things done right now... What we need is your support to help turn things around - I know you have work to do, but we're your voice in washington, working for your interests where it really counts. Can we count on your support? ... well, if your talking about money, then no - thanks for your time though...
...but it took awhile longer before the persistent guy left, pushing for a yearly membership or any kind of one-time contribution. He had a lot of slick presentation-style talking points put together, with slick back-up material well-arranged in folders. My boss would probably be more a sympathizer in principle, but nobody likes a pushy sales-guy when there's work to do. Afterwards I looked up the organization and found its basically a lobbying group. The bad part though is how they get their money - its guys like this all over the country apparently, professional salesmen who talk business owners into joining based, lately, on the dire business-killing consequences of having a democrat in office.
The worst part is finding this: http://www.salesgravy.com/JobBoard/job/OUTSIDE-BUSINESS-SALES-%282G219%29-El-Paso-TX-13948510 . Those jokers are making 50-75k lying their asses off, probably getting credit for filling out "opinion" sheets like he did today (though we didn't sign anything), and getting a big commission if he came away with a check. And on top of that, while going off about Obamacare, he's got a good health care plan himself!
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