So I want to discuss the problem with jobs, and offer solutions. My favorite solution, being a libertarian, is small business. You have a service or product and you offer it to others in return for money. It's a pretty easy system that becomes terribly complicated very soon. And this unregulated capitalism has one glaring flaw - it's only flaw:
Without proper deregulation, it leads to corporatism.
See, if you are a canny business-man or -woman, and more importantly, a callous one, you become a de facto lawmaker. It becomes cheaper for you to influence local government via campaign contributions than to actually make a better product.
It happens at all levels. Here are several examples, mostly local. We've already ranted on the major corporations and minimum wages here. And this is a follow-up to Jobs Don't Work..
So let's get started. Have you tried to start a job? In theory it's quite simple. You fill apply for an Employer Identification Number. The SBA lists 10 steps required, but really, all you need to be in business as a sole proprietorship is an EIN number and a name. You don't even need to register the name, even though you ought.
My ambivalence to the taxes aside, I don't begrudge the EIN number. However, in Milwaukee Area, they utterly wreck your ability to hang a shingle. Literally, without a building to work in, you cannot have signage.
What's the reasoning here? It's simple. Signage reduces property values. Nobody wants to see a big sign on your house. But then, so do bullet holes, but Milwaukee seems totally OK with that.
The entire video is full of completely ridiculous. Treating books like guns? The street vendor lottery? Is book theft that big of a deal? Already we have laws to protect against unsafe food, the Better Business Bureau and Angie's List for services like interior decorators. Anyone who uses a service should demand references from that service.
If Chuck wants to start a business, he's out of luck.
The problem is an inherent corruption. Claims to the contrary, government officials rarely care about issues once the money starts rolling in. Instead, a government career is now a brilliant scam; become wealthy without producing anything. If a business is popular, look under nearby rocks to find a Bureaucrat or Legislator seeking to put his hand out under the guise of "public good."
When my uncle gets a haircut, he goes to a small quiet Latino neighborhood. He arrives at a house int he early evening, and there is usually a line. He hears three or four languages, he talks with neighbors and sees children playing. Each patron -old men, women, children, is eventually led to a chair where and old mother and her daughters cut hair for 5 dollars. Five dollars. Needless to say, barbers and cosmetologists hate this. How can they charge 100 or more for a perm if they are being undercut in the market?
Government bureaucrats to the rescue! Lock up these hair-braiding miscreants!
It's insanity. It's working for money, not for good service, not for quality, not for a better world. And it's short-sighted, because it doesn't improve wealth over all by allowing for people to break away from poverty.
Might as well follow Chuck back to his no-good dead-end job. Unfortunately, that job is being outsourced or automated. It might not be there when he returns.
We'll continue with more examples in part two. Chicago is an egregious over-regulator, stemming from a history of criminals. In civil office or otherwise.
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