Remember Doug Wilkey, the grumpy Floridian who
tried to get a lemonade stand that was operating next door to his
house shut down by local authorites? Whelp, looks like he’s
getting
a taste of his own medicine.
A tipster contacted the city and pointed officials toward
records that show Wilkey, as recently as March, listed his Patricia
Avenue home as the principal business address for Bayport Financial
Services.Planning director Greg Rice said officials were drafting a
letter notifying Wilkey, 61, that all companies operating in the
city require a business tax license, which costs about $45 a year,
and that home-based-business owners must sign an affidavit agreeing
to follow special rules.
It’s tempting to say “Karma’s a bitch, sucka!” and leave it at
that.
But that’s the wrong response.
Yes, Wilkey, 61, started it by trying to bring in
the government where simple human-to-human interaction should have
sufficed. But is is just as troubling that the local government has
now decided to use its powers to harass this man, simply because
he’s kind of a jerk with unpopular opinions.
Crotchety old men aren’t as photogenic as entrepreneurial kids,
but they deserve the same rights and protections. All the reasons
why Guerrero deserves to be left alone to make an honest buck apply
equally to Wilkey. In fact, running a financial services company
out of your home likely has even fewer negative externalities than
setting up a lemonade stand.
It seems pretty clear the city is looking into this guy’s
business because he managed to drawn attention to himself in a
negative way. And of course the hypocrisy here is as delicious as a
glass of Country Time on a hot day.
But I guarantee you the there are other home-based businesses on
that block. In a time and place where nearly every human action is
smothered in laws, rules, and regulations, enforcement will
necessarily be arbitrary. Limited resources mean that cops and
licensing bureaus get to choose who they go after, and those
choices will usually be made for reasons that have little to do
with efficiency or justice.
When I wrote about the lemonade stand, I gave the local Dunedin
authorities “three cheers.” I take them back. When a grumpy tipster
complained about a commercial activity by a cute kid that wasn’t
hurting anyone, they looked into the matter and wisely chose
inaction. Then the same situation presented itself with a less
appealing protagonist, and they did the opposite. Zero cheers.
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