“Fight Against Stupidity And
Bureaucracy”
One of the
things that this blog is supposed to do is highlight the stupidity of
needlessly meddling bureaucracy.
I
recently read a reprint of an article by New York Times writer Anand
Giridharadas about governmental meddling.
It went like this:
"Say you want to start a home
catering business in New York city. According to the city government,
you'd need, among other things,
- a food protection certificate,
- a food service establishment permit,
- a gas authorization,
- professionally installed range hoods,
- a licensed carting company for waste,
- registration as a sales tax vendor
- compliance with portable fire extinguisher rules
- and the unincorporated business tax."
That's
a pretty formidable list; and it doesn't even include state and federal
registrations and compliance.
It’s just
one small example. There are a similar host of needless rules and regulations
in every industry whether it be construction, catering, or whatever. The stupid
rules are enforced by equally stupid people. And it is crushing the life out of
businesses.
Although a lot of the regulations you read about on
the internet are not for real, nevertheless the European Union is notorious for
passing idiotic and unnecessary legislation. And to be quite candid the US
government is no better. It now has an "alphabet agency" for just
about everything for no other reason in many cases other than to watch, track
and tightly control virtually everything that we do. In 1936, the Federal
Register, which is the main source of regulations for U.S. government
agencies consisted of about 2,600 pages; today, it is over 80,000 pages long
and growing.
A recent article on a web site called
businessinsider.com went on…
But it is
not just the federal government that is ramming thousands of ridiculous
regulations down our throats. The truth is that in many cases state and
local governments are far worse. We have become a nation that is run and
dominated by bureaucrats. Yes, there always must be rules in a society,
but we have gotten to the point where there are so many millions of rules that
the game has become unplayable.
Here are a few examples. While you are reading them, just
think about the warped minds that think up this stuff, but then also think
about why we (the normal people) continue to tolerate this nonsense. And it is
getting worse at an alarmingly accelerating rate.
They are more absurd than funny, but the last one might even
throw a scare into you!
The state of Louisiana says that monks must be fully licensed
as funeral directors and actually convert their monasteries
into licensed funeral homes before they will be allowed to sell their handmade
wooden caskets.
In the state of Massachusetts, all children in daycare
centers are mandated by state law to brush their
teeth after lunch. In fact, the state even provides the fluoride
toothpaste for the children.
Federal agents recently raided an Amish farm at 5am in the
morning because they were selling
"unauthorized" raw milk.
In Lake Elmo, Minnesota farmers can be fined $1000 and put in
jail for 90 days for selling pumpkins or Christmas trees
that are grown outside city limits.
A U.S. District Court judge slapped a $500 fine on Massachusetts fisherman Robert J. Eldridge for untangling
a giant whale from his nets and setting it free. So what was his
crime? Well, according to the court, Eldridge was supposed to call state
authorities and wait for them do it.
In the state of Texas, it doesn't matter how much formal
interior design education you have – only individuals with government licenses may
refer to themselves as "interior designers" or use the term
"interior design" to describe their work.
Deeply hidden in the 2,409-page health reform bill passed by
Congress was a new regulation that will require U.S. businesses to file
millions more 1099s each year. In fact, it is estimated that the average
small business will now have to file 200 additional 1099s every single year. Talk about a nightmare of red
tape! But don't try to avoid this rule - it is being reported that the
IRS has hired approximately 2,000 new auditors to audit as many of these 1099s as possible.
The city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin makes it incredibly
difficult to go out of business. In order to
close down a business, Milwaukee requires you to purchase an expensive license,
you must submit a huge pile of paperwork to the city regarding the inventory
you wish to sell off, and you must pay a fee based on the length of your
"going out of business sale" plus a two dollar charge for every
$1,000 worth of inventory that you are attempting to sell off.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is projecting that the
food service industry will have to spend an additional 14 million hours every single year just to comply with new federal regulations
that mandate that all vending machine operators and chain restaurants must
label all products that they sell with a calorie count in a location visible to
the consumer.
The city of Philadelphia now requires all bloggers to
purchase a $300 business privilege license. The city even went after one
poor woman who had earned only $11 from
her blog over the past two years.
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