What I really wanted to do was own my own business. That was, and in a small way remains, the dream.
It's a dream that I now acknowledge will never come close to fruition, and the following story is why....
Actress Thandie Newton calls out Starbucks for offensive coffee display. Chron.com
"Pursuit of Happiness" actress Thandie Newton sparked a social media controversy with Starbucks Monday after tweeting a photo of a questionable store display.
The English actress' photo shows a black child-like figure at the counter of a central London Starbucks that was being used to display Colombian coffee beans, reports the Mirror. Along with the photo, Newton wrote, "Seriously @Starbucks? At the counter - Loin cloth and Safari hat on a black child. Happy New Year circa 19th century."I realize that this is going to be construed wrongly, but I am NOT defending Starbucks here. Yes, I was on their side during the whole (silly) Red Cup debacle and I really didn't give two shakes whether or not they wrote "race together" on my cup. I'm not typically one to fret about 'news' of that type.
Nor, honestly, am I really all that beat up inside over one Starbucks, in Central London, using a racially insensitive figure to promote coffee from Colombia. Of course, as I've stated, I'm Caucasian (and therefore [according to some] infinitely privileged and don't understand the oppressive racism that people face in a Central London Starbucks)
Was Starbucks correct in removing the display? Of course. At this point you're stupid if you use human likenesses to display anything other than clothes.... and even then.
This is not to suggest that racism, and racial oppression, is not a thing. Certainly there are, especially among the poorer class, real atrocities that we've seen are taking place within the realm of human slavery etc. We should all work to stamp that out.
But, racism from a financially well-off actress in Central London? We should all be so oppressed in life as Ms. Newton.
All that said, there is no way that I would even think about starting a business that served the general public given today's society.
Won't make a wedding cake for a Mrs. and Mrs.? Offend the GLBTPQ movement who will then redress for supposed grievances from the Government who will seek to deprive you of your livelihood.
Will make a wedding cake for a Mr. and Mr.? Offend the Religious right. Who will then spend much time holding up signs in front of your place of business telling all and sundry that you are "going to hell" for a business decision.
You can sell an Advent calendar, a coffee named "Merry Christmas Blend" and a variety of other Christmas items but, if you pour that coffee in a plain red cup, you're committing just the latest atrocity in the war on Christmas.
If you choose to say "Merry Christmas" then you're offending the Athiests and Agnostics.
Serving cow offends the Hindus (and the Vegans, but pretty much everything offends them), serving pork offends the Muslims and the Jewish people and serving a vegetarian option offends certain members of the carnivore class.
Worst of all, any mistake your company makes (no matter how small or insignificant) will be instantly posted for the world to see on either Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. You will be instantly vilified by the perpetual outrage machine and you and your family will be held up as the "Worst Person in the World" until the next worst person comes along.
You could potentially receive death threats and threats of harm to you and yours, there will be active calls for your arrest, imprisonment and public flogging all for daring to make your breakfast scramble with eggs that are not free range.
Serve coffee that's properly hot? You can get sued if some idiot doesn't realize that they're drinking a hot product. Fail to accurately list one of 1,000,000 foods that can potentially cause allergies? We'll see you in court.
Oh, and the customer in front of me spilled his soda, I slipped on the resulting spill and hurt my pride. I'll be suing you for $1,000,000,000 in emotional damages. I'm emo you see and there's a lot to damage.
And this is just what the mob can do to you. I haven't even gotten to the government yet.
We currently are ruled (that's not a typo, they feel that they are ruling us now) by governments who truly believe that your economic success does not spring from your efforts, but from their divine wisdom. As such, they feel that your profit and well-being is something that they have the right to forcefully take if you fail to pay sufficient tribute.
You will now be forced to subject your food to very expensive laboratory tests in order to display the calorie counts on your menu. If the lab makes an error in an inexact science? You will be sued for making people fat and the government will fine you and take away your two first-born children as penance. You will then be restricted to serving only bananas for the next year until you work off your caloric debit to society.
Before any of that however you have to navigate a bureaucratic maze of complexity beyond the dreams of Kafka. By the time you finish paying all of the permitting fees, dba fees, operating license fees and various and assorted other duties to your rulers you'll have just about enough money left to hire an employee, who will then try to unionize or will demand time off to picket for a $15 living wage.
This type of treatment of private enterprise used to be called "protection rackets" and were rooted out by the very same government. The truth is that nature abhors a vacuum and the very same regulators that were once on the side of business are now actively working against it.
We can bemoan the loss of the local mom & pop shop in the city center and blame Wal-Mart and other big-box stores until we're blue in the face. But the fact is that we've killed those little stores through a combination of our overinflated sense of outrage and our malfeasance at the ballot box.
Where it was once the citizens vs. the "man" it's now become the citizens vs. the citizens who demand that the "man" come down viciously on that part of the citizenry currently out of favor.
In short, we're doing all of this to ourselves.
And it's not going to get better, it's going to get worse.
I greatly admire those who are willing to go through all of this and face certain financial ruin to be their own boss. I would like that very much, but I'm a realist. You start a business today for two reasons. 1. You are young. 2. You have no prospects. Youth and desperation are what it takes to succeed in America today. It also helps to have political patronage, which can shelter you from bad decisions and provide income even to those with no business acumen.
The game is hopelessly rigged. And I have no desire to enter a rigged game. At least, not right here in Houston, and certainly not right now.
