Ah, the joys of big government.
This one’s from the New York Times:
Julie Murphy, a 7-year-old Oregonian, set up a lemonade stand on July 29 at an art fair in northeast Portland. County health inspectors shut her down, however, telling Julie and her mother, Maria Fife, that they needed a temporary restaurant license, which costs $120. The penalty for selling food without a permit, they warned, was $500. At 50 cents a cup, that’s a lot of lemonade.
Others at the fair urged the family to give away the lemonade, and they wrote “free” and “suggested donation” on Julie’s sign with a marker. But the inspectors were unmoved.
Julie left the fair in tears.
How do you feel about your hard-earned tax money being used to pay government bullies to harass a 7 year old?
Update: From Gawker:
Mean Oregon health officials shut down 7-year-old Julie Murphy’s lemonade stand because it wasn’t up to code. But now the county’s top official has apologized: ”A lemonade stand is a classic, iconic American kid thing to do,” he said.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Big Government Makes 7 Year Old Lemonade Entrepreneur Cry at Taxes // Aug 9, 2010 at 7:55 am
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2 Emma // Feb 11, 2012 at 11:53 am
Note that was local inspectors who did this, not feds. And if someone were to get ill from something they ate elsewhere at the fair, it would be easy to blame the lemonade. Where would the child be then? If the city wants to license lemonade stands for a dime fee they need her folks to petition to change the law–and follow thorough with the hearings, filings, etc . necessary to accomplish this. The wealthy do it all the time. My bet is someone who has a license complained. It’s only business, after all.
3 Peter // Feb 11, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Emma,
I have no idea what you are talking about. But thanks for visiting.
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