The Right To A Lemonade Stand

Did you ever play that game Lemonade Tycoon? Well, it may be going the way of the Oregon Trail, at least in Midway, Georgia, where police shut down a lemonade stand for want of a business license.

Midway Police Chief Kelly Morningstar says police also didn’t know how the lemonade was made, who made it or what was in it.

The girls had been operating for one day when Morningstar and another officer cruised by.

The girls needed a business license, peddler’s permit and food permit to operate, even on residential property. The permits cost $50 a day or $180 per year.

One girl, 14-year-old Casity Dixon, says the three had to listen to police and shut down.

The girls are now doing chores and yard work to make money.

Well, I think that’s pretty sad. Some folks are arguing that the police were just enforcing the law of the land, but if this law is designed to be enforced at this level, then I think this law is pretty dumb.

Look, I’m not the kind of conservative that thinks “business license” is a code word for “socialism,” but there’s gotta be a reasonable limit somewhere. Does it cost $50 for a garage sale in that town? How about a bake sale? Do Girl Scouts need a permit to sell cookies? Would I need a $180 business license to sell something on eBay or mow my neighbor’s lawn for some cash?

Well, actually, no. It turns out that the police weren’t enforcing the law correctly. The business license requirements for Midway are publicly available on the Internet, and they state that a license is required within 10 days of opening business. The news article states they had only been open for a day, so they had over a week to get a silly license (fulfilling requirements a through g of section 7-1-4 part 2) before they could be shut down. Furthermore, the code states (section 7-1-8) that nothing shall require “any person who may engage in casual or isolated activity and commercial transactions, where they involve personal assets only and are not the principal occupation of the individual, to obtain a business license and pay a fee therefore. Garage sales, involving the exchange or sale of personal items are considered casual or isolated activities for the purpose of this chapter.”

Well, that answers my snarky question about garage sales. It may be up to the local courts, but I don’t see how you could claim that three girls selling lemonade to raise money for a trip to the water park doesn’t fall under “personal assets only and are not the principal occupation of the individual”. So, no, the police weren’t enforcing the law anyway.

I also object to the police chief’s statement that he “didn’t know how the lemonade was made, who made it or what was in it.” Never mind that this had nothing to do with the law he was enforcing. These fears are the product of the nanny state – a reverse “guilty instead of innocent” mindset where we assume something is unsafe unless the parental government has approved it. The ironic thing is that by asking a few simple questions the police chief could probably have learned more about the source of that lemonade than he could ever hope to know about the source of his last meal at a restaurant.

Both proponents of freedom and proponents of local food are well aware of the incentives at play here. When you buy your food (or drink) from someone locally, they are very likely to provide you with good product because you know where to find them if they make you sick. That mysterious lemonade was probably safer to consume than the chicken nugget paste coming out of some untraceable factory, or whatever is the latest critiqued industry practice, or whatever is the latest “recalled” food product from an industry full of safe business licenses.

This is something everyone should be able to get behind. Conservatives are all about making money and keeping the government off your back. Liberals are all about women overturning male domination in the workplace, and about green food sources. And what’s greener than walking up to a lemonade stand? I’m open to other opinions here, but I just don’t see an argument for preventing little girls from selling lemonade. Unless you just don’t care enough about freedom to accept the risk of the unregulated lemonade being poisonous. (Then don’t buy any?) Don’t think that this kind of interference is limited to “liberal” states like California and New York, where they’re banning Happy Meals and bake sales, respectively. It can happen in small towns like Midway, Georgia, too.

Lemonade stands have been a rite of passage for young entrepreneurial spirits for decades. Instead of getting a handout for free water park tickets from their parents, these three young girls were developing a work ethic and learning what it means to earn something in a country where that experience is increasingly lacking. Sadly, they only learned that bureaucratic legislation erects barriers to entry that restrict competition and stifle innovation. I’m sorry, girls, I guess you had to learn that sooner or later. And it sounds like your work ethic is coming along fine, anyway. Good luck with those chores; I hope you enjoy your water park.