Faced with expensive medical bills for her bone cancer, Salem, Oregon resident Jan Cline took to selling much of what she owns to help cover the costs. This angered the local freedom-hating bureaucrats, so they shut her down (Hat-tip: Open Market):

Jan Cline had no idea, but the city of Salem has a clear law that states a person can only have three yard sales a year.

…She’s run businesses and supported herself for years but this summer she was diagnosed with bone cancer.“It’s a bone marrow cancer that eats through the bones and causes holes in the bones so that just by walking I can break a bone,” she says.

In one day she lost her independence, her ability to work and earn an income that could pay for all those medical bills.

So she decided to sell what she owned. The sale was bringing in several hundred dollars each weekend until one neighbor complained and she got a visit from the city.

What a despicable neighbor.

This is ultimately the source of overgovernment: some people just really don’t like what freedom produces. Specifically, they hate that it means things are not always how they want them to be. These people then whine and complain to government, demanding that something be done, and politicians who are pleased to be able to solve a problem for a constituent are happy to comply. The result is inevitably a loss of the freedom which seems to upset so many who lack perspective, but which I think they will increasingly come to mourn as the magnitude of its absence fully sets in.

But there’s a silver lining to this tragic case of government stupidity. Thanks to the publicity that has been brought to Jan’s plight, private individuals have now donated over $35,000 (Updated 8/22) to help her out.