Amish Raid And Other Stories

In Delaware we'd buy salsa made by the Amish.

Now there's a mix: Amish making Mexican food.

But unpasteurized milk wouldn't be on my list. I hate milk.

However, sounds like there's a market for it. So why raid it? I know it's illegal but really, if people want it let them buy and use it. People eat all sorts of things.

Reminds me of the ethics and religious course hoopla here in Quebec. Aside from the course itself, the problem I have is the government's paternalism forcing every school to heed to its demands.

I just don't get how the state can involve itself in a contract between a private citizen and private school. If a private parochial school and its parents want a product why does the government intervene?

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Reminds me of another story. The municipality where my daycare operates is, for a lack of a better word, special. They have all sorts of frivolous bylaws that irritate the heck out of local shops. Recently, they obliged store owners to comply with a decision whereby they had to change their signs. The changes would cost, on average, $2000. That's a lot of money to impose on small businesses. My sign will cost me $1300. My plan was to wait a year before hanging one - you know, because I have to prioritize my costs. Alas, as the saying goes, "you can't fight city hall."

Not only that, they choose the size, colour and material used for the sign. Not you for your business. And if the owners or landlords don't comply, it is met with fines and in some cases the threat of revoking busiess permits. So if you have a Lavender store, naturally, you'd want a purple sign. No way say the tyrants at city hall - it's green! Incidentally, that's the colour they chose for my sign. We lucked out because our official emblem matches green perfectly. But I'm still irritated by the fact a bureaucrat indirectly has a say on my business.

Look, for a lack of a better word, it's a form of communism. None of these people have a clue what it's like to run a business. Aside the financial imposition, think of what that does to the creativity of shop owners? It zaps it. If you're the type who sees the logic in all this idiocy that's because you likely don't run a business.

Nonetheless, it's the imposition through coercion that bothers me.

This is a clear cut example of how bureaucrats reach into your pockets. They really have no business doing stuff like that.

So it's an added debt to everyone's ledger.

And then I have to listen to politicians talk on the news about how we take on too much debt.

But that's not the story I wanted to tell. One of their bylaws is you can't build your establishment with more than two types of materials. For example, if your house is made with brick and stone you can't add wood to it - unless you get their permission and that's a loooonnnnggg process. My landlord made that mistake. He was forced to cover the brick on the extension part of the house. The mayor even went as far as to say she doesn't "like red brick" after personally looking at it.

Me and the owner? We liked it. Parents? They liked it too. They were a little surprised that the city would go that far.

Me? Surprised? Nah.

This after they had ordered the owners to remove a wood material of higher quality because it wasn't exactly the same as the existing one which was inferior. The owner figured it's a better quality and would be an easy sell to the council. Ha!

They never heard of the material and would have to study it. So we had to change it because it would have cost me another month or two before common sense prevailed - if at all. I had already lost two months due to slow renovations and two because the bank I was dealing with cost me another three months for not releasing funds I needed to pay workers.

Speed is key in business. Time is money. Credit departments and (some) bureaucrats could care less.

The other day, we noticed an inspector (I heard the average salary for the urban civil servant is $65 000)  hovering around our place taking pictures. I really didn't like it. It makes you feel you're living in a communist state. The least they can do is show up after hours. Oh wait, they knock off early.

My director, as governmental as they come,  looked at me and summarized it perfectly: "Sont incroyable."

They're incredible.

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My point in all this is we waste so much time and energy with nonsense. There's no real good reason why they do the things they do.

They do it because they can.