Once upon a time, a child’s lemonade stand was a rite of passage, the proverbial toe in the water of entrepreneurship. Enterprising youngsters would throw together some lemonade, set up a stand somewhere — either in their yard or a local park —and set up shop.
No, they didn’t have business licenses, but hey, they’re kids. No adult would begrudge a child a lemonade stand, right?
Well, it seems there’s always one jackwagon who has to crush a child’s spirit, and a child in Discover Bay, Calif., ran into him:
“Whoever the man is who threatened to call the police on my daughter for her lemonade stand, you are seriously pathetic.”
“There is a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. I understand that you were upholding the “law” but really dude?”
This is the story of a little girl from Discover Bay who set up a lemonade stand on public property.
She just wanted to sell some lemonade and cookies. Her parents told her she could be there for 1 hour.
But as she was setting up she was approached by a man who was all bent out of shape by what she was doing.
(Don’t worry there is a happy ending)
Richard LaRouche is the little girl’s father. He told me: “The man just pulled up next to her and asked for her business license and then told her ‘I’m calling the police’ and then got on the phone and began speaking as if he was talking to police.”
Over a kid’s lemonade stand.
Let’s skip over things like how business licenses are little more than something requiring citizens to beg permission from the government to earn a living and get right to the meat of the issue.
Children’s lemonade stands aren’t businesses as people generally think of them. They’re temporary “pop-up” businesses that are owned and operated for an extremely limited time, often for just a day. In many ways, they’re no different than a yard sale or garage sale (insert dad joke about people needing to sell yards or garages here).
Business licensing schemes weren’t really designed for such limited businesses. They were designed for businesses that intend to be in operation for a longer duration than a day or two.
So why get your undies in a bunch about a child’s lemonade stand? Well, assuming what’s been reported is accurate, then there are a number of possibilities. For example, if the man in the car owned a nearby business that derived a significant bit of income from people getting drinks and snacks, he may have had an issue with the loss of revenue.
None of that excuses the fact that this man was reportedly an ass to a kid who was doing something that’s about as innocent as it comes.
It kind of makes me wonder if he pulls up to drug dealers and asks them for their business licenses. Or is it just easier to pick on a small child?
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