Where's Her Bailout?
Carol Joynt has operated Nathans restaurant in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood since inheriting the place from her late husband in 1997. After years of struggling to keep the business afloat in one of the world's most rabidly anti-wealth producing regimes, Nathans will close on Sunday after 40 years. Sadly, Joynt reports that Nathans won't be allowed to rest in peace by the state and its minions of wealth destruction:
...[T]he city called and said they'd read we were closing - which is why restaurants usually wait until the last second to slip out of town at midnight - and that if Nathans doesn't pay $22,000 in additional taxes by tomorrow they will put liens on my house, my bank accounts and on Nathans. Can it get scarier?
Why is it that only the big guys can get bailouts, but when its a little guy, on the ropes, with no options, there's absolutely no mercy? I'm sobbing.
This is crushing. I do not have the money. I maxed out my home equity on bailing the building out of past due property tax. I can't get anymore. I could rob a bank, I guess, but really - my skills are rusty. What else is there to do but joke because it is so awful. I have thrown myself at the mercy of the city. They bail out big developers often, and usually to the tune of many more thousands than 22K, and while I don't think Nathans is a special case, I think Nathans is a case with merit. Think of all the many thousands of dollars of tax we've paid over 40 years. This is the first time I've come up short, and that's because of so many factors out of our control. We've tried everything we effing could to make the place work. I'm out of options. That's why Nathans is closing.
I have a choice, pay the city and avoid the liens, or use the rent money we've saved up, and then default on the rent on July 15 and get tossed into landlord-tenant court to face God knows what hell there.
It's worth remembering that Joynt's attackers belong to the same gang that gave a $611 million stadium to a baseball team owned by one the city's largest real estate developers. And just recently, one of these same parasites admitted diverting $48 million in taxpayer dollars for their personal use.
Comments (16)
BioTube
If you didn't think governments were just for rewarding cronyism before...
Published: July 8, 2009 10:11 PM
Jesse J
Wow, it sounds like she's pleading with the mafia! Oh, wait a sec... well isn't this awkward...
Published: July 8, 2009 11:38 PM
End the Fed
"It's worth remembering that Joynt's attackers belong to the same gang that gave a $611 million stadium to a baseball team owned by one the city's largest real estate developers."
But but...it creates JOBZ!
"And just recently, one of these same parasites admitted diverting $48 million in taxpayer dollars for their personal use."
But you forgot the MULTIPLIER! Those people actually pumped $48x10=$480 million INTO the economy!
Come on...Keynes figured all this shit out 75 years ago. Get with the program.
Published: July 9, 2009 12:00 AM
Ghost of Deborah Palfrey
You know when your business goes broke in DC there are a lot worse things that can happen to you. Just saying.
Published: July 9, 2009 12:32 AM
Dave
Well, the District of Criminals strike again!
Published: July 9, 2009 12:59 AM
Michael J Green
This is just plain evil.
Published: July 9, 2009 1:37 AM
电炉
I love this post!!
Published: July 9, 2009 1:54 AM
Lee
End The Fed:"But you forgot the MULTIPLIER! Those people actually pumped $48x10=$480 million INTO the economy! Come on...Keynes figured all this shit out 75 years ago. Get with the program."
FRIGGIN' ROFL!
Joe Stalin would be proud.
Published: July 9, 2009 7:36 AM
Gernot Hassenpflug
Why is it we need to pay taxes at all? If the government so readily uses the tools of borrowing and inflation, they don't need the politically unpalatable option of taxes. Or is it just a way to make the downtrodden feel every day the footprint on the faces?
Published: July 9, 2009 9:35 AM
Gabe
They don't need to really have taxes, but it is all done for our own good. Think of all the jobs it creates. If they did it all through seignorage then they would have to fire hundreds of thousands of IRS agents, accoutants, prison guards and lawyers. With the jobs created through othis miraculous system we create so much more wealth!
Published: July 9, 2009 9:46 AM
Walt D.
Remember the "Become a Doctor and support a Lawyer" bumper stickers?
"Open a restaurant and support an investment banker".
"Get a job and support a government program"
What is the difference between a tick and DC government? When you die the tick falls off!
Published: July 9, 2009 11:21 AM
Milan
End the Fed... that was hilarious!
Published: July 9, 2009 3:12 PM
End the Fed
"Why is it we need to pay taxes at all? If the government so readily uses the tools of borrowing and inflation, they don't need the politically unpalatable option of taxes. Or is it just a way to make the downtrodden feel every day the footprint on the faces?"
If all they do is borrow, why would anybody lend the money? They're only getting paid back with what they put in, unless the government prints more money to pay interest. But that just devalues the principal...
The other reason: you can't let people get "too rich", otherwise they might form communities that don't need government "services". They might be so rich that they can have private welfare programs to help the less fortunate.
Published: July 9, 2009 5:36 PM
End the Fed
"They don't need to really have taxes, but it is all done for our own good. Think of all the jobs it creates. If they did it all through seignorage then they would have to fire hundreds of thousands of IRS agents, accoutants, prison guards and lawyers. With the jobs created through othis miraculous system we create so much more wealth!"
I'd rather have them digging ditches and filling them back in.
Published: July 9, 2009 5:41 PM
Mark Jones
I'm curious about how they go about putting the lien on her home. Doesn't a Limited Liability Corporation or one of the other types of companies prevent this?
Of course, that doesn't make any of this right. Though, I think there are means available to "protect" oneself against this particular coercion, and one should take advantage of it to prevent this kind of destruction (If I'm correct about this being available).
Published: July 10, 2009 1:20 AM
KP
Hmm i wonder if that property has bidders.. I wouldn't mind taking advantage of a great location like Georgetown, DC.
Published: July 10, 2009 9:45 AM