Bureaucrats vs. The American Dream
By Clark Neily
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door." Ah, how times have changed. Nowadays, it's more likely to be a pack of bureaucrats beating a path to his door with a cease-and-desist order.
For example, when Tempe, Ariz., teenager Christian Alf started charging his friends and neighbors $30 to put wire mesh over their rooftop vents to keep out roof rats, he quickly drew the ire of local exterminators. They complained to the State Pest Control Commission, which promptly ordered Alf to knock it off or face a $1,000 fine on the grounds that he was practicing pest control without a license.
Or how about Sandy Meadows, of Baton Rouge, La., who got caught working in the floral department of Albertson's without a license. A state inspector magnanimously offered to forego the $250 fine if Sandy would throw away the seven flower arrangements she had spent the morning putting together.
In Tennessee, Rev. Nathaniel Craigmiles didn't like the way licensed funeral directors were exploiting his flock by using their state-created casket sales monopoly to jack up prices, so he started selling caskets himself at near-wholesale cost. The state board promptly shut him down for selling caskets without a funeral director's license.
How did America go from being the most innovative, independent and entrepreneurial country in the world to a place where nanny-state bureaucrats dictate who may pursue even harmless occupations like flower arranging?
Much of the blame lies with the U.S. Supreme Court. The Founders well knew that the essential nature of government is to expand its power and that even virtuous politicians cannot be trusted to respect proper limits on their own authority. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has chosen to reject that wisdom, at least in the economic sphere, by refusing to enforce clear textual limits on government power.
Predictably, legislators and executive branch officials responded to the Supreme Court's abdication by running roughshod over economic liberties and private property rights. From the federal government's massive usurpation of power during the New Deal, to the nakedly protectionist occupational licensing schemes found in many states, to local governments essentially renting out their eminent domain power to the highest bidder, America is increasingly a place where citizens own property and pursue their livelihoods not as a matter of right, but at the mere sufferance of government officials.
It was never supposed to be that way.
There is no historical or textual basis for the Supreme Court's decision to relegate economic and property rights to second-class status, nor is there much to commend the substantive results of that policy. There is (or ought to be) something deeply offensive to any American about the arrogance of power displayed by the officials described above. People should be angry when they hear that the State of Louisiana turns away hundreds of would-be florists every year on the grounds that they are not "qualified," or that people in Tennessee and Oklahoma are being exploited by a state-created cartel that marks up the price of caskets 300 percent to 500 percent above wholesale cost. And we should be outraged at those Arizona bureaucrats who tried to squelch a teenager's entrepreneurial spirit instead of encouraging it.
We must never miss an opportunity to fight back. That means keeping a sharp eye out for abuses, spreading the word and drawing attention to them when they are found, and, most importantly, standing up to the officials involved. IJ's Human Action Network is an incredibly important part of that process. We depend on HAN members to watch their local politicians, monitor the media and keep their ears to the ground for abuses of economic and property rights in their areas.
Sometimes, a simple warning letter is enough to make the bureaucrats back off; Tim Keller in IJ's Arizona Chapter sent a letter warning the State Pest Control Commission to let Christian Alf go back to work or risk a lawsuit. Other times, HAN members might litigate cases themselves, either with or without the participation of IJ lawyers. But always, the most important thing is to seize every chance to redefine the proper scope of government and to make sure that when someone invents a better mousetrap, the path to his door is free from lurking bureaucrats.
Clark Neily is an IJ senior attorney.