Tag: regulation

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free trade & free markets local leaders too much government

Gateway Capitalism

You’ve heard of “gateway drugs.” What about “gateway capitalism”?

The mayor of Clayton, California, apparently believes that two little girls selling zucchinis and melons by the roadside is the start of something bad.

The city cracked down on Katie and Sabrina Lewis’s veggie stand. Mayor Gregg Manning defended the bust, saying that “They may start out with a little card-​table and selling a couple of things, but then who is to say what else they have. Is all the produce made there, do they make it themselves? Are they going to have eggs and chickens for sale next?”

Heavens! Capitalism run amok! Streetside vendors are to be allowed only when city governments run the show, as in the growing movement to establish old-​fashioned day-​markets. You know, Saturday Markets and Sunday Markets and the like.

But veggie stands, like dreaded lemonade stands, are illegal in Clayton.

You can understand the concern, I guess: Traffic problems. This police operation started off on one complaint. But most neighbors defend the stand, saying that traffic was never a problem.

So now 11-​year-​old Katie has gotten political. She circulated a petition to reopen the stand, and has lots of signatures. Best of luck to Katie and Sabrina, but I am afraid that the lesson you’ll really be learning isn’t about capitalism at all. It’s about bureaucracy.

And an awful void of common sense.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Bedbugs in their Bonnets

When Congress began meddling in interstate commerce, using the most generous criteria to justify federal interference in private business and state powers, critics with common sense argued that the ultimate result would be absurdity.

If Congress wasn’t made to stick to the powers Constitutionally enumerated, then there would be nothing Congress wouldn’t do!

The proponents of big government said, in effect, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Yet the ridiculous is now the normal business of Congress. Recently, the august members of the House have been deliberating the “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008.” This legislation would direct the Commerce Department to provide grants to eligible states to assist in the inspection of hotel rooms.

Representative G.K. Butterfield, a North Carolina Democrat, says that bed bugs, 50 years after being nearly eliminated, are back.

Hmmm. Since hotels depend on their reputations to make money, they have every incentive to fix this problem, without taxpayer help. Hotels should be financially responsible for their own inspections. If there is a role for local and state governments, it would be to streamline the court system to make it easier for afflicted customers to get compensation.

But Congress authorizing $50 million to solve their bed bug crisis? Butterfield insists “it’s not a joke.”

But it is. On us. Congress now defines commerce as extending to the traffic of bed bugs.

Oh, it’s nice that Congress worries about us so. But let’s kill bed bugs locally.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.