Overgovernment: Birthday Blues Edition
Written by Brian Garst, Posted in Big Government, The Nanny State & A Regulated Society
It’s your birthday! But don’t hold the party just yet, citizen, step into my office and fill out some paperwork first…
When Martha Boneta hosted a birthday party for a friend’s 10-year-old daughter on her Virginia farm, she didn’t expect to have the county come knocking on her door.
But come knocking it did — threatening her with nearly $5,000 in fines.
Fauquier County officials say Boneta, owner of the 70-acre Liberty Farms in Paris, Va., didn’t have the proper permit to host the party, nor to sell produce on her own land. Zoning Administrator Kimberley Johnson sent her a cease-and-desist letter in April after the party, warning her with the financial consequences if she didn’t stop her activities within 30 days.
I’m beginning to understand how Michelle Obama must have felt all those years. An America that requires permits for birthday parties is not one I’m proud of.
But perhaps even worse in its overall impact than that utterly asinine requirement is the continued and widespread disregard for basic economic liberties, a particular problem when it comes to zoning laws.
Our economic rights are essential. The right to earn a living, to engage in commerce and trade, these are things which we are required to have if we are to be able to pursue happiness. If we can’t even walk up to our neighbors and buy a bit of food grown on their own land, I don’t even know what we’re doing in this country anymore. Whatever it is, it sure as hell isn’t “secur[ing] the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
For more on the story above, enjoy (or become enraged because of) this video from Economic Freedom:
I serve as Vice President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a non-profit think tank dedicated to preserving tax competition and free markets. This site features my personal views, which are not reflective of CF&P.