Government regulations: One sour Lemonade Day
You have to hand it to Nicolas Martin: He took lemons and, because he couldn't make lemonade, he made a federal case out of them.
In "Lemonade Day done wrong" in Sunday's Times Opinion pages, Martin, executive director of the Consumer Health Education Council in Indianapolis, tells how he and his 8-year-old daughter were eagerly looking forward to setting up a lemonade stand on May 1, which is Lemonade Day in America.
Everything was going smoothly, and then:
The next morning I began a three-day phone trek through the maze of government agencies that regulate businesses and food sales, and I watched my child's All-American plan crumble like fresh-baked cookies.
Yep, big bad Big Government reared up and stomped all over their cookies, er, dreams.
But it’s not just kids' lemonade stands that are threatened, Martin says; it's the American dream:
Lemonade Day is promoted as a way to "inspire a budding entrepreneur!" But it is actually a dispiriting lesson about how hard it now is to become an entrepreneur, whether you're an adult or a child. It is about how even the most harmless enterprise, the humble lemonade stand, has been sacrificed on the altar of government regulation.
Whoa. I’m picturing Aztec priests with still-beating hearts in their hands! (I wonder if they needed a government permit for that?)
I'm sure Martin's heart, though, is in the right place. And I'm sorry that, at the tender age of 8, his daughter had her heart broken. (And I'm finished with the heart puns.)
But do you want to know when Big Government is bad? It's when it has a rule to keep you from doing something you want to do.
And do you want to know when Big Government is good? It's when it has a rule that keeps someone else from doing something you don't want them to do.
Take lemonade stands.
A good lemonade stand is the one Martin and his daughter were going to set up.
A bad lemonade stand is the one your neighbor's kid sets up on the corner near your house, causing a traffic jam and leaving empty cups on the sidewalk and lawn, all while screaming at her friends and passersby for hours while you're trying to sleep one off on a Saturday morning.
And do you know what you say then? "There outta be a law!" (Right after "Honey, do we have any aspirin?")
Or maybe it's not a lemonade stand. Maybe it's a taco truck that parks on your street from 10 p.m. to midnight and serves hordes of folks who love a good street scene. They make noise and litter, too; plus the taco truck guy can be cheaper than the restaurant down the street because he's unlicensed, doesn't pay taxes and doesn't have to pass a food inspection.
But, hey, he's just a humble entrepreneur. Why should he be "sacrificed on the altar of government regulation"?
But the lemonade stand girl is just a kid, you say; she isn't hurting anyone.
At least, that's what Martin hopes. Because if somehow someone does get hurt -- say, slipping on some spilled lemonade -- he'll hear that other great American cry: "I'll sue!"
ALSO:
Federal regulations: Let's review the rules
-- Paul Whitefield
Photo credit: Matthew Mead / Associated Press
Here you go folks, a perfect example of a liberal one who never never admits when Goverment is acting stupidly.
But the writer may have a point, when idiotic laws like "the Lemonade" law is passed pehaps there outta be a law making it only applicable to Democrats.
Posted by: Prince Albert | May 03, 2011 at 11:39 AM
It's just people opinions, we are all right but the thing is it will never play out the way anyone wants it to because we are all divided. You can't stand on your side as an individual, you all have to come to the middle, if not there isn't any United States, there is just states.
Posted by: Aaron | May 03, 2011 at 01:03 PM
Perhaps Mr. Martin should move his family to China or India. Less regulations, more entrepreneurial freedom. Of course the lemons may be tainted with toxic pesticides, the sugar mixed with fillers, and the water may be polluted because there are no regulations on dumping anything you like in the water. That's entrepreneurial "freedom", too.
Posted by: hb | May 03, 2011 at 02:10 PM
Working in local government, I can tell you, everyone wants the laws to apply to their neighbors, but not themselves. It's always "How can you tell me what to do with my property?" right after "How can this be allowed to happen right next to me???"
I think a year of no government regulation of anything would be quite eye-opening for Americans.
Posted by: WarmStorm | May 03, 2011 at 02:24 PM
So the lesson here is the Martin was stupid to start calling the government for permits for a child's one day lemonade stand.
Posted by: SoCal_Bozo | May 03, 2011 at 03:07 PM
Thanks to Mr. Whitefield's puzzling, if not thoroughly addled, response to my op-ed about the pitfalls of lemonade entrepreneurialism, my child had two great third grade show-and-tell topics in one week.
Mr. Whitefield needn't fret about my daughter's heart. She made $60 operating an illegal lemonade stand in the rain for 3 hours on Lemonade Day. I don't dare have her repeat this libertinism soon, though, or Child Protective Services might cite me for unfit parenting. Once is a celebration, twice is a misdemeanor.
I've told my daughter that her best career choice is not in lemonade or tacos, but in writing cynical and condescending editorials, protected from the snare of regulation by the First Amendment. Contrary to legend, it wasn't entrepreneurs who made America great, it was editors.
Nicolas S. Martin
Posted by: Nicolas S. Martin | May 03, 2011 at 06:11 PM
No-doubt if it were a young Maria, selling horchata, licensing requirements would be deemed as xenophobic anti-Latino ethnic/racial profiling.
Posted by: Mitchell Young | May 05, 2011 at 07:28 AM
Mr. Whitefield demonstrates his love of nanny state regulations and his distaste for children.
Well done sir.
Posted by: Greg | May 05, 2011 at 10:08 AM