Rubber meets the road time
Posted by Scott "The Piper" St. Clair - January 04, 2009
We talk a lot about how high taxes, intrusive government, and excessive regulation are negatives - how businesses are killed, initiative crippled, dreams crushed - citing billion-dollar statistics and other numbers so large it's hard to wrap your brain around them. Too often, we get bogged down in the massive while failing to look around to see the small situation that offers greater evidence of the harm done.
In Sunday's Seattle Times, columnist
Danny Westneat offers what can only be described as a quintessential example of how blunt-object regulation is destroying a small, start-up business that employs three people.
Entrepreneur Wendy Powell has a small retail shop specializing in the resale of children's items: clothing, books, toys, as Westneat says, "About anything else you need if you have a kid."
"More than any government bailout, it's people like Wendy Powell who will lift us out of our economic doldrums."
Wow! If that isn't the best synthesis of what free markets do, then what is? Yet, because these are goods destined for kids under 12, they have to be tested for lead content, per a new law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush this past August. Per Westneat's column, that effort will cost Wendy Powell more than the value of the goods she sells, hence she may have to shut down her business.
Often we regard what happens in Washington, D.C. as something best described by the old Chinese proverb, "The mountains are very high, and the emperor is a long way away." Unfortunately, this time the mountains aren't high enough, and the emperor is way too close for comfort.
Wendy's Congressional delegation seem to have deaf ears - maybe an earmark for her isn't forthcoming because she doesn't contribute enough to their campaign coffers. Who knows?
Westneat quotes her as saying, "There isn't going to be any bailout for me. I created something out of nothing and it looks like they're going to shut down...I'm at a bit of a loss to say what entrepreneurship means in America anymore."
This shouldn't be misunderstood as a political crusade on the part of either Powell or Westneat. Powell is described as neither "pro-lead or anti-government." She is simply a mom with previous business experience in software marketing who saw an opportunity and attempted to capitalize on it.
Likewise, Westneat isn't some hard-core, libertarian, wing-nut like, say, for instance, yours truly. He's simply a guy who saw the absurdity of a situation and wrote about it.
It isn't the first time, nor, I suspect, will it be the last - I regard him as an honest seeker after the truth even when I disagree with him.
Westneat's Sunday column needs to be taken into every civics and economics class in every school in the state, from Kindergarten through graduate studies programs. The lesson it teaches in a few hundred real-world words is worth more than all the PhD-level graphs and pie charts combined.
Here's a thought...Anyone who reads this and then finds themselves in North Seattle ought to make a special effort to check out Childish Things on Holman Road just off Highway 99. Even if you don't have small kids or grandkids, you must know someone who does. Remember, every item you buy is an item Wendy Powell won't have to have tested for lead content.
Thanks to both Wendy for having the gumption to believe in the free-market system and Westneat for telling us her story. No thanks to the federal government for stomping it all out.
The Piper
Add Comment -
Anon said on Jan 05 2009 at 8:28am
Washington passed it's own version of this bill last session which was originally more restrictive than the federal legislation. That would have left this state off the radar for delivery of toys from every major manufacturer because the benefits of the market didn't outweigh the cost of compliance. See SB 2647: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2647&year=2007.
km said on Jan 06 2009 at 11:45am
Piper: Love the Chinese proverb analogy. You're right, in our current world, Washington, D.C. is just over our shoulder.
So, because this is a recent law, much of Wendy's inventory has not yet been tested? Because if it had been, she could rely on those results. And, there's no special language for second hand sales?
I doubt that repeal of the law is a practical matter. Surely amending the law to include language, much like that of exempt businesses with too few employees to be able to rationally fit under the legislation, should be undertaken. (My, that was an awkward sentence.)
km said on Jan 09 2009 at 12:10pm
Piper: Settle Times reports today that the feds announced they will no longer require second hand stores to test "used children's clothing, toys and other items sold at second hand stores" for lead. Thought you'd like to know that.
Mike Reitz said on Jan 12 2009 at 11:59am
I saw the clarification km mentions, but the devil's in the details. The feds won't require secondhand retailers to test for lead...but they're still liable if they sell a toy that contains lead.
