Snopes reports a threatening letter from a CEO from the 2008 campaign appears
to have been edited and recirculated in 2012. This time the sender is
identified.
I wonder how deep throughout USA companies this letter is being sent in the
1%'s effort to scare Democratic employees to vote counter to their best
interests.
This sort of pressure is exactly why workplace Unions are so necessary.
After the CEO letter, I have appended the Snopes report, so everyone can draw
their own conclusions
The CEO of a massive timeshare company sent an email about the upcoming
election to his employees yesterday, threatening to fire some of them if
President Obama wins re-election.
David Siegel, who owns Florida-based Westgate Resorts, sent an email to all his
employees yesterday to discuss the upcoming election. âThe economy doesnât
currently pose a threat to your job,â Siegel wrote, noting that the company is
âthe most profitable [it's] ever been.â âWhat does threaten your job however,
is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration.â He went on to say
that although he âcanât tell you whom to vote for,â if Obama is re-elected, it
would mean âfewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for
everyone.â
Here are a few select paragraphs from the email:
Subject: Message from David SiegelDate:Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:58:05 -0400
(EDT)From: [David Siegel]To: [All employees]
To All My Valued Employees,
As most of you know our company, Westgate Resorts, has continued to succeed in
spite of a very dismal economy. There is no question that the economy has
changed for the worse and we have not seen any improvement over the past four
years. In spite of all of the challenges we have faced, the good news is this:
The economy doesnât currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten
your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration.
Of course, as your employer, I canât tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly
wouldnât interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose. In fact, I
encourage you to vote for whomever you think will serve your interests the
best.
However, let me share a few facts that might help you decide what is in your
best interest.
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So where am I going with all this? Itâs quite simple. If any new taxes are
levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no
choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I
will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly
less opportunity for everyone.
So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate
understands the economics of business ownership and who doesnât? Whose policies
will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be
the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to
tell you to believe the â1 percentersâ are bad, Iâm telling you they are not.
They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it wonât be at the hands of
the â1%â; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through
this country.
You can view the email in full here.
Siegel earned national notoriety this year for his quest to build the biggest
house in America, âa sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by
Versailles.â
Rest of post
-------------
In a bizarre twist, Siegelâs email was modeled after a fake letter that made
the rounds on the internet during the last presidential election. He confirmed
his own emailâs authenticity in a phone call to Gawker, saying that âit speaks
the truthâ and gives employees âsomething to think about when they go to the
polls.â
-------------------
Claim: Employer issued missive to employees that any further taxes on his
business will result in his shutting it down.
LEGEND
Example: [Collected via e-mail, November 2008]
To All My Valued Employees,
There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this
company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed
for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The
economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however,
is the changing political landscape in this country.
Of course, as your employer, I am forbidden to tell you whom to vote for - it
is against the law to discriminate based on political affiliation, race, creed,
religion, etc. Please vote who you think will serve your interests the best.
However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you
decide what is in your best interest.
First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against
employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back
story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and
hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at
last yearâs Christmas party. I'm sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure
up some idealized thoughts about my life.
However, what you don't see is the back story.
I started this company 12 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot
studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living space was converted into an
office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the
way, would eventually employ you.
My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back
into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective
transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on
weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was
married to my business â hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.
Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest
$50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived
in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the
Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the
Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was
birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of
luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a
business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford
these luxuries my friends supposedly had.
So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at
about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me.
When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself.
I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, ****, and breathe this company
every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no
happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old
special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden â the
nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the back story and
the sacrifices I've made.
Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right
decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The
people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same
luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.
Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and
without wounds.
Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is
starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:
I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have
state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes.
Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire
a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes
for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting
that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to
the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus"
check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.
The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who
has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per
year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home
pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously,
government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.
The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and
you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get
rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in
jeopardy.
Here is what many of you don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need
to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that
I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000
into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees,
and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the
wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you
can forget it now.
When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and
shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you
defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has
been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power
brokers in Washington believe the mud of America are the essential drivers of
the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this
is the type of change you can keep.
So where am I going with all this?
It's quite simple.
If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and
simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the
government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future.
Frankly, it isn't my problem anymore.
Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You
see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives
to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be
destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.
While tax cuts to 95% of America sounds great on paper, don't forget the back
story: If there is no job, there is no income to tax. A tax cut on zero dollars
is zero.
So, when you make decision to vote, ask yourself, who understands the economics
of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job?
Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of
saving your job. While the media wants to tell you "It's the economy stupid"
I'm telling you it isn't.
If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at
the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled
the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens,
you can find me in South Caribbean sitting on a beach, retired, and with no
employees to worry about.
Signed,
Your boss
Origins: In the ramp-up towards the 2008 Presidential election and in its
wake, a number of anonymous "Here's how you, the ones who voted for him, will
directly suffer from a Barack Obama presidency" missives landed in inboxes
everywhere. One such was putatively from a hard-working and generous
grandfather telling his beloved liberal granddaughter that her support for
Obama meant Grandpa was no longer going to be in a position to help her
financially. Another was supposedly penned by CEO to his 140 employees
informing them that thanks to the new taxes now surely headed his way, he'd
have to lay off a few of them, so he was starting with those whose cars sported
Obama bumper stickers."
The "To All My Valued Employees" letter quoted above is another of such ilk. In
it, a boss threatens to shut down his company (thus wiping out the livelihoods
of the 14 people who work there) if any more taxes are levied upon him, an
outcome he views a virtual
certainty under an Obama presidency. The piece is perhaps best viewed as an
attempt to put into real-world terms the possible consequences to average folks
if business is interfered with to the point of no longer being able to operate
rather than as an actual letter sent by a real boss to his employees.
Although our earliest sighting of this item dates to 3 November 2008, textual
clues within the missive (such as "Please vote who you think will serve your
interests the best" and "So, when you make decision to vote") indicate it was
likely penned sooner than just the day before the 2008 presidential election.
The original author of this piece is unknown to us. While some versions are
merely signed "Your Boss," others are attributed to Michael A. Crowley of Wake
Forest, North Carolina via inclusion of his signature block at the end of the
piece. Crowley himself denies authorship, saying:
In reference to the "To all my valued employees" letter currently circulating
the internet:
This letter was forwarded to me by a colleague. While the letter may indeed be
authentic, I was not the author and I do not know the identity of the original
author. I forwarded it to the "John McCain Joe the Plumbers" email group prior
to the election. Someone moved my contact information into the body of the
message making it appear that I was the author of the letter. I would
appreciate your removing my contact information prior to forwarding this
message.
Michael A. Crowley, PE
While sometimes folks looking to distance themselves from soapbox pieces
they've penned subsequently claim to have found such contentious items
elsewhere on the Internet and merely to have forwarded them to others, that is
not the case here. More than just Crowley's own words of denial support his
claim of non-authorship, with the key to that proof lying in the very sigblock
that has worked to convince so many of his being the real "boss" behind the
letter.
That sigblock identifies his firm as Crowley, Crisp & Associates, Inc., a now
defunct business entity that (according to North Carolina's Secretary of State)
was formed in May 2007.
The missive so widely laid at Crowley's feet states "I started this company 12
years ago." Twelve years prior to 2008 was 1996. (His current firm, Crowley &
Associates, Inc., was formed in October 2000.)
Were Crowley the actual author, that line about when he began his company would
have read "last year" or "8 years ago."
Also, the e-mail asserts the business run by the tax-burdened boss "serves over
2,200,000 people per year." We're dubious about such a claim being made of a
civil engineering firm, because if only its actual clients are counted, that
figure would be in the single to double digits, and if all the people served by
various public works that firm has participated in are enumerated in the
proffered count, that number would likely greatly exceed the stated 2.2
million.
The response to the missive falsely attributed to him prompted Michael Crowley
to pen his own letter on the plight of the small business owner, which can be
read here.
In October 2012, David Siegel, the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, sent a
modified version of this letter to all of his employees.
Last updated: 9 October 2012
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Sent from my iPad
John Ferman
Kingfield Neighborhood
Minneapolis, MN
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