Attacks on Entrepreneurs

Attacks on Entrepreneurs
by John Stossel

I'll give the politicians the benefit of the doubt. Most don't intend to attack entrepreneurs. They just want to make sure businesses obey a few rules. But those rules kill opportunity.

I’ll talk to customers of “Dollar Van” drivers in Queens who are happy to commute by van rather than bus. Most don’t know that the Dollar Vans may soon be strangled by regulations. The vans are resented by transit unions that claim the vans steal “their” customers. I’ll confront the head of the union.

Also:

In Washington State, a bagel store owner was fined for hiring someone to wear a sandwich-board advertising “Fresh Bagels” (the city thought the sign was tacky).

In Mississippi, a hair-braider hoping to expand her business was told she needed a license which requires thousands of hours of expensive cosmetology training. But the training doesn’t even include hair braiding.

In Louisiana, monks who’ve made simple wooden caskets for a hundred years are being threatened with jail time because they aren’t licensed funeral directors.

People can always think of possible problems.

In Europe, a rule called the precautionary principle governs approval of new things... It declares if there’s any risk to new foods, medicines, whatever, the product should be banned until sound science shows no harm will result.

That sounds reasonable, unless you think about it and realize that it also means, as Reason Magazine’s RON BAILEY SUMMARIZED IT:

“Never do anything for the first time.” The Precautionary Principle is a reason why fewer innovations come from Europe today.

Such regulation is also why there is now less job growth in America.

Read more: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/09/08/attacks-on-entrepreneurs/#ixzz0yy55pNlz

Note from the right jack: How to throw a wet blanket on creativity, motivation and initiative. Have you encounter any of the following phrases:

You cannot do that because we have never done that before.

If we let you do that, we will have to let everyone do it.

We tried that once and it did not work.