Box Brothers Corp.

I was sitting here enjoying the mild temperature that we are having here in the
San Fernando Valley, this early August, and I almost forgot that summer is almost
over.

We joked last year, that we did not have much of a summer in terms of it being part of
what we always looked forward to, a busy time for moving, shipping, etc.

We just happened to have lunch with our main moving box rep and he said the same thing,
that they are not having anything close to a standard moving season, with the exception of
this past June, which he said was good.

Obviously, there are issues each and every day with the goings on with the economy. One day
you hear how good UPS and Fedex are doing, and the next day, you hear that retail stores are
struggling, as compared with sales two and three years ago.

With UPS and Fedex, they have a monopoly as they have no competitors out there, unless some
other firm is hiding. I also hear that AT&T had good earnings, but no one and I mean no one, wants the local and long distance phone business as they did a few years ago. That is a defacto
monopoly, and they raise their prices all the time. The only thing they compete for is dsl, with the cable firms, who were the original monopolistic firms out there, by government sanction.

People, it seems to me, are not wanting to spend money these days. Some merchants and businessmen will not freely admit it, but things are slow out there. Vacancies for apartments are up, in bad and good areas, as I must have seen 15 vacancy signs on one block in Beverly Hills
yesterday.

This downward spiral is not good, as if people are cutting back and no one but the monopolistic
firms and lawyers are making money, who is going to spend? The heads of those monopolistic
firms are based in Memphis and Atlanta, very far from California. The firms that drove the small businessman out of business, the Home Depots, the Wal Marts, the Targets, are from,
respectfully, Atlanta, Arkansas and Minnesota. None of those states can lift California or the
national economy, and no one with any sense feels that the government is there for them, only
for Blue Cross, and those who can afford lobbyists, which does not include small businesspeople.
The banks are not based here in California, and the studios, the traditional industry of California
will sell its soul to another state to save a dollar. No one has any loyalty to this state, anymore,
with the possible exception of the public employee unions, who only care about their own interests. Besides, when have government employees made the economy humm? Maybe Budweiser, and Coors, but not the small businessman.

I hope that something happens quickly, as something has to give, or there will only employers who are large and no small business people left. I cannot understand why all of the government
employees and legislators fail to understand this fact, and if the only people working were government employees and sales tax and income tax are down and not getting better, how are they even going to get paid? This is everyone's problem, and we should stop fighting and do what we can to create opportunities for people to work and earn. It is time to do this before it is
to late and it is not a time, if we have not learned this already, to raise taxes like the California
legislature did last year. They should be ashamed that they made everyone's life harder to please their campaign contributers. Shame on them.