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Business owners know how difficult it can be to start and operate their enterprises around state and federal regulations. Some states are worse than others, and Donna Matias, an adjunct professor and director of the Entrepreneurship Clinic at the University of San Diego School of Law, explains what these challenges mean to the hopes and welfare of many people.
Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to be modern day heroes, she notes. The Family Friend van service she dealt with could have helped low-income families visit their relatives in prison, and the owner of Family Friend could have been hailed as a hero to those people. However, government regulations put an end to that opportunity, even though it’s entrepreneurs who merit praise not persecution, since they keep our economy going.
As Matias says, “government can print money, but it’s the entrepreneurs who really make the money” — who provide the value for exchange, that is.
Barriers to entry are particularly problematic in this realm. As the Family Friend entrepreneur saw, they are exceedingly common, onerous, and counterproductive, unless you happen to be already in the market and seeking to utilize the law to rid yourself of competition.
So what then? Aaron Ross Powell, research fellow and editor of Libertarianism.org, puts it well when he says “Let the market work. Set the private sector loose to innovate. Let people help each other, and they will. And these forces — these emergent orders — will not only help those hurting today, but also reduce the likelihood of suffering in the future.”
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