Crushing Entrepreneurs

If you want to start a business and you have a passion to do something honorable, stick with your dreams a pursue it. There will always be obstacles that will come to you almost daily but it's the strong that run businesses and the weak fall off by the wayside. None of us like big business regulations but it the lawyers who have taken on legal issues from greedy individuals who want compensation for personal gain that have caused most of the problems.

I couldn't agree more with Mr. Stossel. I owned and operated a small business several years ago in Washington state. I was required to pay a 1%+ B&O tax on my gross profits, even though the first two years I did not generate any net profits. Though I only employed myself and three other employees, we had to cope with pages and pages of nonsensical bureaucratic regulations. One proposed regulation was mailed to me--I was stunned at how long it was. I do not remember how many pages it ran, but I remember it weighed over 9lbs! The next blow came when the state required me to purchase a performance bond, despite the fact that no losses to consumers could be documented and the state was in the middle of a bond crisis. The latter requirement forced me to sell out to a large, multi-state competitor. A large proportion of government regulations seem designed to: • Favor large corporations, who can afford to hire attorneys, accountants and extra office staff to handle regulatory compliance. • Justify the growth of larger and larger bureaucracies and higher pay. • Satisfy the sick desire of some bureaucrats to bully others, force their own beliefs on others, and to snoop in other people’s lives.

If you think the police are your friend, just read this article. When the civil war starts, they will be the enemy.

As someone who has worked in the private sector since college, at age 45 I find myself wondering where I belong. I would love to start my own tech firm, but as a cancer survivor I am a slave to my benefits that my current employer provides. I found at today that the 60 plus hour work week I put in has provided me with a stip (haven't received one in years) of several hundred dollars. THANKS AVAYA INC, SILVERLAKE, KEVIN KENNEDY-I feel like Clark Griswold from the movie Christmas Vacation

Government employees are losers that couldn't make a living in the private sector. As a small business owner I have lost 100K this year due to stupid meaningless regulation. Early next year I will be moving out of California and starting over. I can no longer afford to support all the government ASS SITTERS.

REMEMBER, these are kids selling lemonade. Keep your dirty tainted hands off of them! This should have been overlooked in the name of common decency and mutual respect for kids trying to do something. If it got out of hand they could have easily been reeled-in by talking to the parents, not cowardly calling the police. At some point THE PEOPLE are going to rise-up against this constant government intrusion and as a career politician once said..."that is what elections are for".

Fortunately the kids are receiving a lesson on how government works at an early age so they won't be disappointed later in life. Invaluable knowledge!

This is why you should always buy a house on a busy corner lot: excellent yard sales, and excellent lemonade stands OFF CITY PROPERTY!

And the nanny state marches on. Land of the free....what a joke

And notice the council member goes off half-cocked. Since it was a kid, he crushed them. If it were a pedophile he would have used kid gloves. These guys are morons.

to previous comments: some of you take aim at this article as if the author has used the kids' story to inappropriately take a jab at the government. That IS the point! Worried about someone suing the city over tripping over some kids' lemonade stand? That IS the point! Our freedoms have become strangled by lawyers and insurance companies. When will common sense and morality make a come-back? Not as long as gov't regulatory requirements burden us all like prison shackles. Broken!

Assholes at large!

Go play video games kids, then be a public sector union employee.

This was not a country fair, it was just a regular day at a regular park. The guy acted like a jerk & should have left the kids alone, but you, Mr. Stossel, need to either go back to journalism school or state who told you there was a fair. After scouring the New Castle site, I can find no such information. Also did you bother to check Mr Wolfensohn's history of raising money for a 9-11 memorial? Or how the kids have been doing a lot of charity fundraising? This piece isn't journalism Mr. Stossel, its the angry rant of an angry man. A real journalist would have given a history of all parties, and given a well rounded view of the whole situation.

"$150-350 for two hours". That is not a permit. That is a piece of the action. The government wants its slice of the revenue for allowing a filthy capitalist business to operate however briefly on its property. Never mind that this is a government which is already paid for. -- EasyOpinions.blogspot.com

"Bake Sale at the Country Fair" - the parents should have known it required a permit. It was their responsibility to make sure the kids were legal - if you are going to invest in the ingredients,signs,packaging and stand - take a trip to city hall and fork out the dough for a permit. Suburbia requires a permit for sneezing!!!

WOW!

Come On John, Look I agree we are over limit with rules and regulations. But, lets target the real issues not the my poor child. My question would be how upset would you have been if the city got sued because the boys cart triped someone and then broke a bone, or the food was tanted and people got sick. When the suite was settled and the city paid out millions, what then? If it ok for young boys them why not the 12 million illegals getting underground untaxed dollars in parks everyday?

It's awfully pathetic - the lengths some will go to, to protect their government pensions or standing in the community. And, some have the audacity to wonder why so many kids are basically slugs? I mean, these poor souls have no real chance to succeed. And, by succeed, I don't mean in the progressive sense of the word; more like the traditional definition. If I were a kid now, I'm afraid I would probably be in jail before age 24 because I couldn't deal with being held down so obviously.

Persons like Mr. Wolfensohn need real help!! Obliviouse he goes doing his alleged duty to Big Brother Jealous no doubt to the gumption and american spirit these boys have shown.

That's what happens when the minority rules.