Bubba was a rabid Republican and a strong believer in tax cuts. During the presidential campaign Bubba bought tickets to meet Bush 41 and was very impressed. Mr. Ben explained "that the boy didn’t know which side his bread was buttered on. I make my own tax cuts! I don’t need politicians to do that for me."
Mr. Ben always read the "Dodge Reports," a trade paper that tracks construction and road projects and one day I asked, "Do you read that for your realty company?"
"I go where the roads go," he answered. "Where the roads go, growth goes. Where growth goes, prosperity goes. Years ago in Dothan the city leaders and business merchants had a bitter fight over traffic congestion in downtown. The answer was a by-pass, and by the time it was finished most of the downtown merchants were broke. The traffic followed the road and took the money with it. The by-pass brought new jobs and industry and new cars lots sprang up. That’s what I like to see is new car lots, because every new car sold is a new customer for us."
He explained that they were trying to find a site for a new store and it had come down to a location in a major shopping center or another location on a newly-widened highway. Mr. Ben said, "The choice is clear, the shopping center is at its peak today! The widened highway will see growing traffic for years; it’s the chicken and the egg. The chicken is all it can ever be but the egg is just beginning."
When Mr. Ben reached 60 he announced that he was no longer coming in on Fridays. When he turned 65 that he would no longer come in on Mondays, then Tuesdays, then Thursdays. He worked only one day a week and spent the rest of his time on his boat in Florida. He attended a meeting that we had arranged to discuss the changing model in the auto parts business. The Auto Zones and Advance Auto Parts were moving in and the old model didn’t work anymore. The general manager laid out an intricate plan to build our own super stores to compete with them, heads up. Mr. Ben congratulated him on a wise strategy but added, "I’m done, at my age a lifetime book club membership isn’t a very good deal. It’s up to Bubba."
Well, the stores are all gone now, as are all three warehouses. Only the Realty Company survives, selling off the strip centers that Mr. Ben had built during his lifetime. The warehouse where we held that meeting is a parking lot now, only identified by a sign for the long-term parking contact. Poor Joe the plumber is more like Bubba than like Mr. Ben. Worried about his taxes even before he makes the money, he can’t wait to put that money in his pocket. Trying to be rich without building a business instead of building a business that will make him rich. A business that can only thrive in a prosperous economy and Mr. Ben knew that. We will always pay taxes so the argument is who will benefit from them, the few or the many?
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