Reply #10: Agreed, but there's another variable...

[BlueinRedOR]

I run a manufacturing & distribution company in Oregon.
Unlike many of the publicly-traded, Fortune 500 companies, my
company is not sitting on mountains of cash. Hell, we don’t
even a small satchel full of cash, rather, I have bank notes
reminding me of the debt I have incurred to survive. I want to
hire. I need to hire. However, the lack of demand is real, and
very unpredictable- combine this with the our inability to
secure any capital in any form, be it a bridge loan, credit
line increase, grocery bags of cash, or bags of peanuts –is 
influential enough that I don’t hire, yet.  
Oddly enough, I was contacted by my local Chamber during their
membership drive back in early Nov’10 and their pitch was
predicated upon their collective resistance to unruly and
unnecessary regulation that was going to hurt my company- I
simply asked the chamber caller: “will blocking or repealing
this nasty legislation induce domestic demand or enable
companies like mine to growth capital?”  Care to guess the
answer?