Is American life now best described by the plot of a Nathanael West novel?
Maybe. In West’s A Cool Million, the young hero meets calamity after calamity, often at the hands of America’s authorities. I stopped after a prison official had all the hero’s teeth ripped out to “prevent infection.”
Most American punitive “overkill” is not as gruesomely funny. If you ask John Dollarhite, it’s not funny at all.
Dollarhite, who runs a computer store in Nixa, Missouri, inherited his son’s rabbit-breeding business, which Dollarhite describes as being on the order of a lemonade stand. When his son reached 18, Dollarhite took over Dollarvalue Rabbitry, and sold over 600 little furry creatures in the space of a year and a half.
He closed the business after the USDA got involved.
You see, the USDA licenses the selling of animals in this country. And neither Dollarhite nor his son were licensed to breed and sell rodents. Dollarhite says he wasn’t aware of such a requirement.
So, of course, the USDA came down. Hard. Like a starved puma on a vole.
The USDA demands he pay over $90,000 in penalties. Dollarhite says the government might as well demand a cool million — or, as he put it, a “$1000 or $100 million. I don’t have it.”
The blogosphere is up in arms about this, and rightly so.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking this isn’t American justice. More like that Nathanael West novel I never finished.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “A Cool $90,000”
It’s like every other government entity these days. It’s all about money. The courts are about money. Got money; can travel. Own your home? Not if you don’t pay property taxes. Where I live government is particularly magnanimous. If one wants to sign their property over to the government right out of the bag at age 65, one can continue to live in their home and at death, the property goes to the government. Keep your car running and on the road? Not if you don’t have the money for inspections, including exhaust, and tags. It goes on and on. Every level of government needs money. Watch out!!
PAM, YOU ARE RIGHT THE GOVERNMENT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY. BUT EVER NOTICE THAT IT’S THE LITTLE GUY THEY GO AFTER, NOT THE RICH GUY WHO TRULY OWES THE GOVERNMENT LOTS OF MONEY. THAT’S BECAUSE THE LITTLE GUY CAN’T AFFORD AN ATTORNEY, WHILE THE RICH GUY CAN BUY THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SO THEY NEVER GO TO JAIL. OR IF THEY GO TO JAIL,(IT’S THE FEDERAL JAILS WITH ALL THE AMMENITIES) THEY NEVER HAVE TO PAY COMPENSATION, OR THEY GET OUT EARLY BECAUSE THEY ARE ILL. AND IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE BECAUSE OUR GOVERNMENT KEEPS PAYING THE OFFICIALS BIG BUCKS AND WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY THEIR DEBTS.
This is simpler than money. this is about control. Government control and regulation of every aspect of private enterprise. Thirty however-many un-elected and un-accoutnable czars/Cass Sunstein the regulatory czar in charge of ALL regualtions of every aspect of American(Amerikan?) life.
This what the socialists did in Germany with the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (the NSDAP-aka the Nazis) when they got all hot and bothered to control all aspects of daily living in Germany. They also were quick to move all social welfare away from control by the private sector and put it into control by the state.
The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants- Camus
All the article’s points are right, except one: Rabbits are NOT rodents. They are lagomorphs. They are no more closely related to mice and capybaras than they are to monkeys and humans. Perhaps there can be a legal defense on that basis, if Mr. Dollarhite was accused of selling rodents without a license. Any way he can extricate himself from this monstrosity would be good, even if it’s a mere technicality.
liberals at it again
[…] was harassed for raising rabbits without a license — fined $3,000,000 but given the out of a mere $90,000 fine if they paid within 30 days by credit […]