The War against Lemonade Stands

          There is no better example of overreaching big government than the war against lemonade stands.  Yes, I’m talking about a simple table from which children sell homemade products such as lemonade or even Girl Scout cookies.  In Portland, this summer a 7-year-old girl was told to get a $120 occupational license or pay a $500 fine.  While requirements vary, according to government bureaucrats, in most states any lemonade stand, even one set up by your children on your own front lawn would require a business license, health and safety inspection and the children would need food handler certification.  You don’t even want to know about sales and other tax requirements.Julie Murphy – Shutdown for no restaurant license

         The Freedom Center of Missouri has an article, complete with map, citing many recent examples of government ordered shutdowns of lemonade stands from Massachusetts to California.  It sounds ridiculous, but it is true.  I did a search for “lemonade stand government shutdown,” and came up with page after page of news stories and blogs reporting the crackdown on children’s lemonade stands.  Apparently to increase revenue, cash strapped local and state governments are fining and enforcing laws in an ever more draconian manner, even if that means stopping a child from selling lemonade.

          The libertarian author and philosopher Ayn Rand said, “The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breaches or fraud by the others (and) to settle disputes by rational rules….”  Government today has grown way beyond those simple and straightforward limitations.  Governments have forgotten that there purpose is not to generate revenue or even to protect us from the germs at a child’s lemonade stand. 

Comments

[LJ @Poster Printing]

a hundred and twenty bucks for occupational license for a girl scout? That's too much of a toll! provisions should be made with considerations on the scale of economy and trade...if that has to be, it's like putting microenterprises to a slow death.