Author: Timothy Sandefur
Bureaucrats in Multnomah County, Oregon, have apologized to 7-year-old Julie Murphy and her family after threatening her with a $500 for running a lemonade stand without a temporary restaurant license. “It’s gotten to the point,” said her mother, Maria Fife, “where they need to be in all of our decisions. They don’t trust us to make good choices on our own.”
That’s true. And it’s a sad lesson to Julie—that entrepreneurs are often subject to a crushing array of licensing requirements and restrictions that burden their right to earn an honest living.
Update: Josh Blackman has more.
