In a great post on Philadelphia Magazine’s Philly Post, former news anchor Larry Mendte asks why there isn;t more outrage here in Philadelphia in response to the significant tax increases that City Council has dumped on us in what will surely be a losing effort to try and shore up the City’s woeful fiscal situation. Where, asks Mendte, is our Rand Paul? Mendte is right. At a time when the City is teetering on a fiscal precipice, with a shrinking tax base and a miserable business climate that os getting worse, Council and the Mayor decide to hike taxes. Brilliant. I suppose it is completely lost on the geniuses on City Council and in the Mayor’s office that the City is in the mess its in NOT because those of us who live here and do business here are taxed too little. Philadelphia is a basket case because it is probably the most inhospitable place in which to do business this side of Caracas. Instead of jacking up property taxes and heaping more costs on the City’s productive citizens, or looking more closely for ways to reduce the size of government and run its operations more efficiently, the City should be looming to expand its tax base by making itself an attractive place in which to start and run a business. An expanding tax base will provide more than enough revenue to run the City. But not here. Instead, Mayor Nutter and the dopes on City Council choose to perpetuate discredited and failed fiscal policies, to all of our detriment. Until the City government realizes that its tax and regulatory structure have made it too expensive and complicated to start and run a business here, and do something about it, Philadelphia will continue to deteriorate and circle the drain. I only hope that its not too late when we find our Rand Paul.

During last night’s installment of celebrity apprentice, that’s what Sharon Osborne told Trump when he asked her why she was so emotional during the boardroom confrontation at the end of which Osborne was fired. It happens that the charity for which Osborne was playing was very personal to her, and thus her plea that it wasn’t just business to her. Setting aside the obvious – that all of the players on the NBC show are competing to benefit causes that are in some way important to them personally – Osborne hit on what is, or ought to be, a deeper truth for all of us who are engaged in serving clients or customers. Business SHOULD BE personal. We should identify with our clients’ needs as keenly as we do with our own. We should engage with them on a level where their success matters as much as our own, and where we feel it as sharply as they do when they fall short. As Tom Peters might say, its all about empathy. I don’t mean to suggest that you become so involved with your clients’ issues that you lose objectivity or the ability to provide clear headed analysis. But if you can’ empathize, and don’t understand where the customer is coming from, your advice or service will be at least somewhat lacking. We all should strive to make our clients needs as personal to us as Sharon has her charitable works.