I’ve noticed a lot of chatter about the “war on lemonade stands” in some of my recent online conversations that concerned the size and role of government. At first, I assumed this was just some libertarians trying to use a one (or maybe two, at the most!) off case to further their cause and once again make the government seem evil. Well… I looked into it… and they were right.
There truly is a “war” on children’s lemonade stands raging across America.
As a wise man once said: This aggression will not stand!
Have a look at the Freedom Center of Missouri‘s map below:
Here’s the legend:
Red = Town has previously shut down kid-run concession stands.
Yellow = Town says kid-run concession stands are illegal unless the kids obtain at least one city permit.
Green = Town permits kid-run concession stands without requiring any permits.
I’m sorry, but that’s outrageous. Do the police not have much, much better things to be spending their time and resources on? Of course they do. That being said… they are, technically, in the right. A few of the cops did turn out to be wrong in their understanding of the law, but many of the children were operating an illegal lemonade stand. What’s the solution? Well, in my opinion, we need to clarify the law. It should be very clear about what is and what is not okay. I don’t know what the law should be, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be rocket science to figure out. How do we get this done? Awareness.
One way of raising awareness is annoying, but it does get the issue into the spotlight:
Yes, those “children” were obviously breaking a law. Yes, the police were correct in arresting them. And yes… they were super annoying. But… they got a bunch of press. Now, I wouldn’t say this issue is at all important (or worth mentioning) when compared to the civil rights movement, but the idea is the same: civil disobedience to raise awareness and attempt to provoke the government into acting.
Yeah, this whole thing is a bit silly, but I think it does expose some major issues with our society and, mostly, our law that need to be examined before they get out of control.
Roads. They’re important. Americans use, and rely on, them quite heavily. As this country has a severe lack of viable public transportation and a citizenry with a penchant for owning a car of their own, having a well taken care of road / freeway / highway system is vitally important. Of course, these roads don’t pay for themselves. Even toll roads need government subsidies. A major chunk of the funding for these important resources comes from the gas tax.