The Back Alley Archives

It's hardly unusual to hear small-business owners gripe about licensing requirements or complain that heavy-handed regulations are driving them into the red.

So when Multnomah County shut down an enterprise last week for operating without a license, you might just sigh and say, there they go again.

Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license.

Turns out that kids' lemonade stands -- those constants of summertime -- are supposed to get a permit in Oregon, particularly at big events that happen to be patrolled regularly by county health inspectors.

I guess I'm fine with some kind of gub'ment regulation to make sure that the public at large is not getting sick from tainted meat and all that, but where you have stores that specialize in unprocessed foods, the consumer knows exactly what he's getting and presumably recognizes any risk that comes with it.

I guess I'm fine with some kind of gub'ment regulation to make sure that the public at large is not getting sick from tainted meat and all that, but where you have stores that specialize in unprocessed foods, the consumer knows exactly what he's getting and presumably recognizes any risk that comes with it.

The problem is that there's simply no way to limit government's regulations once they get rolling. Over time government always expands as it devours resources stolen from the from the production of the free market.

Not to mention all the corruption with people paying these "gov't officials" to look the other way anyway. People get a sense of false security thinking that what they are getting has been "protected" or "inspected"...when actually, they should just be prepared and do their own research on what they are buying. We really have become rather lazy in our society. And I can't say I'm not guilty of it myself. Bah.