Government Control of Lemonade Stands...What's Next?

Looks like government control isn't just coming down from the feds anymore...

Midway, Georgia:  The police chief shut down a lemonade stand set up by three teenage girls trying to make some money to go to a water park.  To paraphrase from the AP article, the police chief said he doesn't know what is in the lemonade, doesn’t know who made it, if it is safe, etc.  And, here it is folks!  The number one reason he shut them down - three teenage girls with an entrepreneurial spirit:  No business license, no peddlers permit, and no food permit at the cost of $50 a day or $180 per year. 

So you see three kids selling lemonade, probably the most iconic American childhood businesses.  Rather than stop and buy a cup, you stop and shut them down?  They could have been selling drugs, steeling something, or worse selling themselves.  Come on!  There was a really cool television commercial this year depicting a young girl building an empire from a lemonade stand.  This is how kids learn the value of a dollar – by having to earn it themselves.

I submit to you that these are children.  In most cases, children can’t obtain permits for anything on their own. They can’t be bonded or enter a contract.  They had a lemonade stand.   Not a restaurant.  And they are kids, not a business like Starbucks or even a hot dog vendor.  They probably would have sold a few gallons and stopped when they made the cash they needed for the water park. 

When I was a teenager, I participated in two Junior Achievement program companies.  I babysat and when I was old enough I worked waiting tables.  I had to learn what it took to earn something. 

What are we teaching these kids, and all kids, by shutting down their lemonade stand?