Day Care Update

Well.

Looks like the renovations (imposed by the government) on my day care will cost more than I budgeted for. Much more. Not good.

The school as is just needed some touch ups and it was good to go. But the government, in their infinite wisdom and constant meddling, decided the number of kids per sq. feet had to change. So even though my school is well over 6000 sq feet for 57 kids which is ample space, the configuration wasn't up to "code."

So what does it mean? It means I have to break down walls. It's an unnecessary cost. Sure. It's a cost of business but cost of business is when it's B2B not State2B in my view. It doesn't improve my bottom line. In fact, they remove from my bottom line because they knocked off five kids I'm allowed to have.

I'm not talking $10 000 here. I'm talking budget breaking stuff.

But what's that to the government? Now I know why there are massive shortages. People just don't have the start up cash to put up even though in reality it shouldn't cost more than $30 000 to open  a day care.

***

Speaking of headaches, it's worse in the construction industry. If you want mafia-like scamming, come and see from the inside how construction and "les syndicats" the unions operate. For me, every politician is complicit in the goonery. What they do to hard working self-employed guys is criminal. But hey, there's always some chump willing to defend the government.

The guy who'll be (hopefully) doing my renovations was telling me stories that were amazing. My cousin has told me similar ones.

In a nutshell, they basically seek control by strong arming people to join their racket. The fines and permits they demand are enough to bankrupt people. In his case, he had to lay off his entire staff because the cost of carrying them is not justified. All for the "racket." One guy told him, look, you owe us $2700 for not having the "right" permit but give us $900 by joining us and "we'll see" what we can do. A government bureaucracy sounding like James Cagney in telling a citizen "wink, wink?"

Of course, as you should notice, what happens when they can't do anything after all? They "pocket" the difference. It's the same principles applied by wiseguys. There's no difference except one is "legitimized" by the state.

Now. Follow me. For a statist who isn't toiling in the self-employment ranks, what's the big deal? They're clueless as to what we go through. To them, get the right permits, join the unions and play ball. It's not that simple. It COSTS A LOT of money for basically nothing in return. Small contractors can barely survive as it is. There are, according to this guy, 25 000 self-employed "travailleurs autonome" in Quebec specializing in artisan and contract work who want nothing to do with the syndicates but are targeted by them.

So. In this case, he had four workers. Because one of his workers was caught painting without an appropriate permit he was on the hook for the fine and was forced into a union he wanted no part of. He's on their "radar" now and has no choice. It's all about effen control.

In turn, he's had to lay off his workers. He can't justify the cost.

That's four less people WORKING in the economy because the permits they have to be inputed in a state log and each time it's logged the employer is whacked for all sorts of fees including CSST.

The menial jobs keep uneducated people sheltered, fed and spending money. The small guy gets wrecked. Not the big guys or the state. C'est la loi. Meanwhile, they end up on guess what? Unemployment or welfare.

It's a wicked machine we have going, eh? Real impressive.

I didn't get into the nitty-gritty and murky details because it's too A) irritating to repeat and B) somewhat complicated to get down in words. Anyone who knows how shell games work in construction know what I mean.

THIS is what we mean by excessive government intervention.

Although we're on two different sides of the coin, he and I are squeezed by unnecessary red tape. If the red tape just cost time, it is what it is. But when they directly affect your budget to satisfy their own logic, it costs time plus money.

I think government as a partner is fine. But they're not a partner. They dictate to the point of affecting my cash flow.