Is there a lot of red tape around these days? This is something that Max Borders discusses in the video clip (here) on “our compulsive urge to regulate” i.e. society’s many rules (otherwise known as more ways to take money from you).
Max talks about how he and his wife wanted to sell BBQ sauce at a farmers market but were shut down cold. Well technically they could have… for a price. The County needed a home inspection, they needed a business license, insurance, etc. to sell homemade BBQ sauce (remember I Love Lucy episode #79 “The Million Dollar Idea”?) I understand the inspection from the health dept. but license and insurance? Do counties, cities, not remember when little girls and boys put up lemonade stands? Well yes, but they do not care; they try to get money from them too. I remember in the news not too long ago, a little girl was told to put away her stand and not sell her lemonade because she did not have a license. How will our society grow, and thrive with these regulations, these laws that push us down? How are kids going to learn and educate themselves and prepare for the future? A child who is trying to earn money at age 7 by working hard is someone who will grow up knowing that hard work pays off, instead of “the man keeping you down,” and winding up on welfare.
Max has it right; we need the consumers to regulate and not those who profit. Prices and costs need to come down so that entrepreneurs have a chance or soon all that will be left are Walmarts (more than we already have). Submitting paperwork alone should not come with the cost of some 75$ + fees when most everything is done or can be done online.
I have witnessed people on power trips make people move from a shady corner selling their ice cream from a cart, to a hot sunny spot because they did not have their license with them. Now these people had one, as well as permission from the head of the place they were at, but someone in the lower management didn’t care, he brushed them off. I’ve seen inspectors ruin hundreds of dollars of product from an ice cream truck due to not having the correct license. When regulations are handled by regulators with no compassion that toss and throw money down the drain instead of giving those a chance to go home and fix things needed, that is a sign that things need to change and they need to change now.
I for one do not want to live in a place that tells us when to have kids, who we can hug if at all, what we can create and not, and so forth. If regulations continue at the rate they are now, we might well someday find ourselves not allowed to eat anything other than Taco Bell (Demolition Man 1993.)