Comments on: I Tried to Open a Lemonade Stand

By: Uruz2012

Uruz2012 — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:39:00 +0000

They did this in response to quite a few children around the country being told that they can’t sell lemonade on their front lawn without a license… See the John Stossel article for the story of how hard that can be.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:15:00 +0000

It seems these days you need to pay tribute to engage in trade.

By: Michael Suede

Michael Suede — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:26:00 +0000

Thanks for the civics lesson.

I stick by what I said.

By: 675676764

675676764 — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:43:00 +0000

Public property is not really public; it’s government property. Public property represents land that can be bought only with the money that has been stolen from the taxpayer.

The cops are actively enforcing immoral laws, and therefore they are always in the wrong. The law does not dictate morality.

By: Michael Suede

Michael Suede — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:40:00 +0000

They paid for that property with their taxes. There is no legitimate reason not to let them sell lemonade on it if they aren’t bothering anyone.

By: Orthzar

Orthzar — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:59:00 +0000

The problem with the situation is that they were operating on public property, as far as I can tell. This is a problem regarding public property, not regulations. The lines of ownership are so blurry on public property, that even libertarians think that they have a right to operate a business on public property.

If the lemonade stand were operated on private property, such as a front-lawn or a private park, then libertarians would have a very strong case, and would be fully within their natural rights, assuming they got the permission of the property owner. However, these individuals chose to use property that they did not own and did not get permission to use.

Note: I am not defending the actions of anyone. The cops could have merely kicked the lemonade operators off the public property and been done with it.

This is poorly-focused activism and overzealous security. The lemonade liberators cry for freedom on public property, while the cops say that they can’t use the public property for that purpose. Instead of merely evicting the lemonade liberators, the cops arrest them. There is nothing good about either side of this activism.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:18:00 +0000

How safe will you be without a working free market?