[fabsroman]

I second Denton. He pretty much said what I was going to say.

Val,

You are thinking like yourself, not like "them." Over the past three years, I have sat and pondered why some people do what they do.

Why does my granite client start a business that is doing really well, but not want to listen to his accountant/lawyer regarding worker's comp, general liability insurance, the procedure for making deposits, the procedure for making transfers to payroll, the requirements that he complete an I-9 form when he hire a person, the requirement that everybody he pays be on payroll, etc. On top of that, I cannot understand how he continues to get into trouble. He was found guilty of Drinking & Driving in June 2004 and given 3 years probation. By September 2004 he was charged with 2nd degree assault in a domestic disturbance. I got the State's Attorney to drop the charge for lack of evidence. Come February 2005 he was charged with one count of disorderly conduct and 4 counts of 2nd degree assault, three of which were against police officers while watching a band at a bar. Mind you, his DWI probation called for no drinking. I ended up getting him a plea bargain for disorderly conduct and the judge gave him probation before judgment for 11 months with 12 AA meetings required. On top of that, he knew he didn't have a driver's license because I told him to go to MVA and get a new copy because they took it away during his DWI. When he went, he found out it was suspended, but continued to drive around until he got pulled over and received 6 tickets.

Now, sit back and try to think about why a person would do all this. Mind you, he is making $200,000+ in gross income.

Now, he runs his business almost the same way he runs his life. He has about $20,000 in receivables that have been out there for over 4 months, but he doesn't want to pay me to try and collect them. He barely listened to me about paying estimated taxes in April. He also thinks that his employees will run the business if he ends up in jail. Yeah right. Most of the time I call his cell phone or his business line, the voice mail boxes are full and I cannot leave a message. I have had customers complain about his customer service, including my sister, my dad, and a couple of friends that I referred to him. However, at the end of the day his price is the lowest because he doesn't pay worker's comp, general liability, and other things that he should pay.

I have already told you about the lady that quit her job for absolutely no reason that I could think of.

How about my brother. He makes $100,000 a year, has a decent amount in his savings account earning 2%, but decides to keep a $5,000 balance on his credit card because he doesn't want to make that lump sum payment even though he has the money in his savings account. I believe his quote was "It hurts too much to write that check." Mind you, he is paying 19.9% on the credit card balance. Doesn't really make sense to me.

I have plenty of stories about clients and my brothers that do not make sense. If you can just make sense of the above, then I will believe that COMMON SENSE could possibly solve all of our social problems.

If everybody had common sense and a decent upbringing, I don't think there would be a tenth of the problems that there currently are in this nation. Sad thing is they don't.

My brother and I were raised by the same parents and he and I are completely different. If my other brother didn't take care of him, he would be a disaster.

Yes, common sense usually helps, but trying to apply it to situations where people lack common sense is rather tough.

Now, I do not even try to think about why people do what they do, I only worry about whether or not their checks are going to clear.