Posted on 01/29/2015 5:20:42 AM PST by Enlightened1
Earlier this week, Matt Molinari and his friend Eric Schnepf, both seniors in High School, were going door-to-door advertising their snow shoveling services in advance of the storm. School was out, and instead of sitting inside and playing XBOX, these two young entrepreneurs felt the fire of enterprise and decided to turn their down time into an actual dime.
However, Molinari and Schnepf apparently didn’t realize that in order to make a dime you have to pay a quarter — to the state. When the two boys were out trying to rustle up some business during what they saw as an opportunity, along came the uniformed agents of the state, to put this unapproved business venture out to pasture.
“We weren’t looking to break the law. We just didn’t know the law,” Molinari tells Jim Smith on his WCBS 880 radio show.
The cops then gave these two kids a lesson in statist economics, which consequently ended their high school snow shoveling business.
“They need a permit, unpermitted solicitation is not allowed,” Molinari said, recalling what the police told them.
In this particular county, anyone selling goods and services door to door must apply for a license that can cost as much as $450 for permission that is valid for only 180 days; after all freedom ain’t free.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-shutdown-high-school-kids-earn-money-shoveling-snow/#mxj5uyWccCAog7gj.99
(Excerpt) Read more at thefreethoughtproject.com ...
not the cops fault obviously, it’s the local law makers who made that dumb law.
Could be a good opportunity for them to learn the value of Free Market economics and the importance of their voting in the future for fiscally conservative candidates.
We have that in my city. There are things I like about it, like no strangers knocking at the door. The Jehovah Witnesses ignore it.
No good deed goes unpunished.
You can’t even shovel snow for a few bucks anymore? What’s next? Having to get a permit for a lemonade stand? Oh wait..
I’m not sure I can decide what is more restrictive? That is, the fact the police were involved in some kids offering shoveling for $ or the police department backtracking and saying it was “an emergency” and the kids weren’t allowed out. Out of their homes and in their neighborhood?
Must not have been any dogs to shoot that day.
I wonder who ratted on them
Would they have been shut down if they had volunteered to shovel the snow for free and then accepted tips?
The police didn’t just “happen” upon their little enterprise.... Someone called them
you mean to tell me that if you want to help an elderly neighbor it will cost the snow shoveler money to help others out. Where is this happening. I live in a snowbelt area og Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I have beeen helping my elderly neighbors for years at no cost. One neighbor is just sick with the cost of her medications, she wants to contribute to the cost of snow removal, but instead she has to pay her for her medications. I just say that is okay. But it is getting expensive to do the snow removal too. The equipment does not come cheap - a zero turn with a snowblower attachment is not a cheap machine. A salt spreader is not cheap either. I may just stop helping others soon as it is costing money too.
Sounds like the cops went overboard on these two, and then had to back track and claim that it was only because of Christie's "State of Emergency."
Wrong. The cops have wide discretion. They could have just let it go, no harm, no foul.
Yeah right....these morons enforce idiotic laws. They know what’s right and wrong. They are just as responsible for the police state we live in, as the lawmakers and clowns that vote them in.
It is the cops fault. The SCOTUS recently found that cops can make up their own law. Besides, they always have prosecutorial discretion.
Wow....I didn’t know cops just blindly ‘enforce the law’ (some animals comes to mind). Here I thought these were smart/articulate peeps whom could discern what/where to ‘enforce’ < /s >
I’ll presume the po-po nudged the youngsters to contact their Reps to repeal these type of asinine ‘Laws’?? Or to at least give them an ear-full?
The kids should have just responded in Spanish. If the cops thought they were illegals, they would have given them a pass.
They’re supposed to be good little drones, sitting at home getting high and playing video games.
Back in the early 60’s while living in Lindsey California, in the fall, I would go around town and offer to climb the trees and knock down “all” the leaves so that there would be only one time that the leaves needed to be raked up. I made a fortune, (or it seemed for a 12 year old kid). I had lots of money for Christmas presents, (and snacks). No one thought that I was breaking any laws.
I have mowed lawns in the summer, pulled weeds for a fast food restaurants, (which resulted in a full time summer job). I worked as an unofficial assistant manager for KFC as a 17 year old High School student, (40 + hours a week, which was against the labor laws), and made the weekend bank drops, hired and fired employees and ordered all the supplies because the “manager” wanted to race cars from Friday night until Sunday night.
I have never been without a source of income. Even when unemployed I was using a friends tow truck to pick up junk cars from peoeple’s property and selling them to the salvage yards, (average sale was $200 per car, for which I gave my friend $100 for the use of the tow truck).
Taking away the desire of the youth to earn a little spending money and to learn the lesson of hard work is a travesty. We need kids with the drive to work for what they want.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.