Police State USATROY, IL — An 11-year-old entrepreneur recently learned a lesson about the economics of living in a police state when her home-based cupcake business was closed-down by local bureaucrats.
When people started noticing young Chloe Stirling’s cake decorating skills, they started requesting she bake them orders for birthdays and holidays. Her clever designs quickly turned into a childhood business venture, as her eager customers gave her money in exchange for birthday cakes and baked goods.
She’s created some 3-dimensional designs with her cakes, including a soccer-ball cake filled with pudding and cupcakes shaped like high-heels. Her largest order topped out at 220 cupcakes. She has also donated batches to charity fundraisers.
With twelve satisfied year-round clients, she began saving the money she made with the hope of buying her first car when she turns sixteen.
In the long term, she hopes to open her own bakery with the money she saves.
At least, she was, until the local county bureaucrats got wind of her creative spirit. When a localnewspaper ran a favorable article about her cupcake decorating, the conscienceless regulators decided to seek out the child and quash her business.
No Cupcakes For You
The Madison County Health Department demanded that the girl stop selling cupcakes or face legal consequences. Chloe had to cancel a number of orders and was left broken-hearted.
In order to sell cupcakes, another kitchen must be constructed in her family’s home, she must pay fees, and follow a number of arbitrary regulations. Or, she could acquire an expensive storefront, and be burdened with the costs of renting commercial property, buying equipment, and of course paying taxes and other assorted fees.
She must obtain a permit from the government and allow inspectors to monitor her operation in order to avoid the wrath of county food controllers and abide by the Illinois State Food Sanitation Code.
“A rule is a rule,” squawked spokeswoman Amy Yeager to KMOV.
How Could Anyone Be Against Safety?
Ms. Stirling’s plight is far from unique. While it is particularly infuriating when a child is crushed under the proverbial government boot, the fact is that the law oppresses everyone.
Onerous requirements for commercial-grade kitchens, legal compliance, inspections, taxes, fees, and the like are all designed to keep the “little guy” (or girl) out of the market.
Big name retailers hate competition, and therefore lobby to make the business start-ups extremely expensive and difficult. And while most Americans sheepishly believe that such regulations are there to keep them safe and healthy, the practical reality is that they simply serve to crush free enterprise and help create favorable market conditions for the existing giants a given market — be it cupcakes or manufactured goods or financial services.
The system is designed to keep innovators like Chloe working for someone else — not competing with the powers that be. With all the artificially-imposed hassles and hurdles, working for an established company starts to seem much easier, cheaper, and less stressful. An honest start-up business has everything working against it.
Anyone with economic literacy will acknowledge that this phenomenon is harmful to the economy and the employment rate. The government makes it illegal to work outside a narrow band of regulated actions. As restrictive as California is, the state recently demonstrated that loosening homemade food regulations created over one thousand new local businesses the first year.
The idea that a government bureaucracy can keep people safe is a delusion. People get sick even from the most highly-regulated food sources. The red tape and regulation creates a false sense of security at best, and a crushing burden at worst. Eating inspector-approved cupcakes cannot taste nearly as sweet as the freedom to do things without constantly needing permission.
http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/cupcake-business-crushed/
Yea, POS leo`s. Yea, this shows just what they are about, they make me sick. What the hell is wrong with them damned cops – pigs would be a better name for them bastards – going after that 11 yr. old like that. Something is really screwed up. I bet them cops molested her to and just called it “just doing their job” 🙁 .
When I was a kid we could sell just about everything. No one cared and much was welcomed. Parents were happy to see the kids in the neighborhood busy with entrepreneurial activity. They often acted as guidance and were very helpful at getting us supplies. Today, no way those days are gone. Now kids hang on the streets and do flash mob activities of which the government is very pleased.
“She must obtain a permit from the government and allow inspectors to monitor her operation in order to avoid the wrath of county food controllers and abide by the Illinois State Food Sanitation Code.
“A rule is a rule,” squawked spokeswoman Amy Yeager to KMOV.”
In that case, why are you violating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? After all, “A rule is a rule”, right?
Oh, that’s right! It’s only a rule when a fee for you is involved.
HANG THE SICK BASTARDS!!!
“A rule is a rule,” squawked spokeswoman Amy Yeager to KMOV.”
A rope is a rope too, b#tch!
What the hell happened to “for the children”?
I don’t often post this type of article, but this one just pissed me off. That girl is talented.
WHAT A BUNCH OF CR@P!!!
Absolutely correct, in the name of food safety, they have made it difficult for small business start ups, from insurance, fees and cost of equipment turning a profit is rare and hard. “It takes money to make money”, that ain’t no lie, ironically tax payers fund their own demise as we pay to be regulated into oblivion. Has this lttle girl thought maybe about importing frozen pastries from China?
Imagine if county stooges handcuffed and stifled Steve Jobs, Wasniak, and Bill Gates back in 1980…..you wouldn’t be reading my post right now.
Leave Bill Gates out of it, he is a low IQ criminal who basically sells garbage and expects his customers to pay for his software and do his quality control for free as part of the deal. He single handedly ruined what should have been a strong, vibrant software market. Did I mention he is also an elitist who promotes eugenics?
Exactly!
This great humanitarian is likely responsible for the deaths of millions via his toxic vaccines.
And yet we are forced to eat GMO crap from the stores. That’s right .gov assholes, crush that kid’s spirit. Jerks.
I wanted to make some goods to sell at our local farm stand, the employees loved my tomato pies and baked goods, but if I sold them, I had to have a state approved kitchen, which meant everything had to be stainless steel. Who the hell can afford to convert their whole kitchen to meet the new “safety standards”?
Again, we are sprayed like bugs, fed GMO’s, but if we want to make anything homemade to sell to the public, it might not be safe. Who are these people kidding. It’s all about the almighty buck. I can’t wait for all this crap to just go away.
This is how the ‘jew’ bastards kill any and all competition, in any form, cold in it’s tracks. This goes for everything. Once they control an industry they instruct the government drones (which they own through blackmail) to pass laws to protect only their business interests.
This is ‘jewish’ gangster fascism in action.
-flek