I went to a Wal-Mart in southern California tonight. It had no fewer than 26 permits and licenses displayed, from the city, county, and state governments, including at least three from the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation. I poop you not, that’s a real state agency.
Of course, it doesn’t phase Wal-Mart at all to get those permits and licenses. They probably have several people employed full time making sure that their California stores have all the permits and licenses they need. Because big corporations make large sums of money, they can afford such large, wasteful expenditures.
Mom and pop, though, can’t. If you wanted to open a custom upolstery business, would it dawn on you that there were no fewer than three sections of the California Business and Professions Code specifically devoted to governing your behavior, including one that required you to have a custom upholstery license (unless, of course, you already held a “bedding manufacturer’s license” – nothing gets my goat more than unlicensed bedding manufacturers!)? Traditionally, if someone operated a custom upholstery business and exceeded the cost estimate he provided to his customers, he quickly went out of business because there would be negative word of mouth and no repeat customers. In California, however, such behavior is a frickin’ crime!
Wal-Mart’s not in the custom upholstery business. But they do sell sheets and various sorts of bedding. And as such, they need at least three permits from this single government agency. To sell sheets. Because, I guess, Californians are so stupid that if they were left to their own devices they couldn’t buy proper bedding. They’d probably buy bags of potato peelings to cover themselves and gallons of gasoline to fill their waterbeds, and wonder why they woke up feeling starchy and engulfed in flames. Let us stop and thank God above that the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation is there to prevent such a travesty.
Posted by Apollo in It's Economics - Stupid!