Government''s War on Business

One of the big questions about the on-going lousy economy is why aren't people starting more businesses on their own, rather than relying on government?

The short answer is that governments at all levels in the U.S., have systematically created rules that make it increasingly difficult to start a business in America.

We've all heard about the police shutting down children's lemonade stands in several states because the kids don't have a license to conduct business on their front lawn.

The problem is much deeper than that.

My wife owns a home daycare business. Over the last three years, she has been very successful, by providing great service to her customers.

Washington State has a program that subsidizes the day care payments of low income kids.

Given where we live, my wife had long ago decided not to take government subsidized daycare students.

Good thing that she didn't.

Washington State recently passed a law stating that if your home daycare accepts low income kids, who get a government subsidy, then you are actually an employee of the state, and therefore need to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

WOW!!!

This may be the first case ever where a small business owner is compelled by the government to join a union.

What happens to the poor kids when small day care owners don't want to join the union? They are left out in the cold.

It's yet another awful unintended consequence of crazy government laws.

This isn't the only case where politicians have enacted rules that prevent small businesses from starting and serving their community.

There are a ton of immigrants who would love to start a taxi company in New York.

They get a driver's license. They buy a car. They get their car inspected. These are all reasonable requirements, but no dice -- government requires them to bid on a Taxi Medallion, which is used to restrict entry into the market.  A Taxi Medallion  now costs $1 million.

Many poor people who want to start their own business and rely on themselves can't do so because governments across the United States have restricted the market to prevent competition.

Most of these ambitious people wind up becoming someone else's employee, usually at minimum wage... it's hardly the American dream.

The really smart and ambitious ones wind up in the black market, selling drugs or engaging in other questionable activities.

Wouldn't society be better served with them starting and running a legitimate business?

America became a GREAT country because we enabled people to follow their own dreams, open a business, and become their own boss.

Now, governments at all levels systematically destroy people's dreams by restricting entry into markets to create monopolies or oligopolies for themselves or for the special interests.

It's wrong.

Limited liability -- the bogyman of leftists

Leftists love to bellyache about the horrors of "limited liability", which they perceive as some corrupt conspiracy to put corporations in charge of the world, "over people".

What is "limited liability"?

It's the system where your personal financial liability for an organization is limited to the extent of your involvement in that organization.

Let's imagine a world without limited liability...

You buy one share of stock in IBM for $209.

You don't own the company. You don't control the company. You certainly don't manage the company. You don't even work at the company.

Something happens where the company is sued.

The people suing can now claim your house, car, everything else you own, and potentially garnish your wages until you die.

A world without liability that is limited to your involvement in an organization results in a primitive world, devoid of cars, airplanes, computers, and everything else that requires huge investments in time, money, and people.

Unlimited liability results in no one ever being able to assemble the resources needed to create these things.

Making people liable for things that they don't control is undoubtedly the dumbest of all the leftist fantasies.

Yet we keep hearing about this nonsense from leftist no-nothings over and over and over again.

This should tell us all something important about the leftist mindset and why we should completely dismiss everything that they say.