(Friday’s Populist Capitalist Blog Post)
Enough already! State regulators are now going after … yoga instructors???
With an inborn love of rules, regulations, and red tape and a righteous sense that only bureaucrats know what’s best for us, state regulators across our formerly great land are now focusing on protecting us from yoga instructors. Yep, that’s the big danger to the public health, safety, and welfare in the minds of many government officials according to The New York Times: “Yoga Faces Regulation,” July 11, 2009). Fees, paperwork, inspections: government thrives on these and like the proverbial camel in the sandstorm, once the government gets its nose in your business, there is a tendency to expand.
I’ve always wondered why my barber or hairdresser, even massage therapist, are required to have licenses. Seems like there is a limited amount of damage they can do and I’m going to know fairly quickly if I think they are any good or not. I’d kind of like my government to confine itself to serious issues and get off everyone else’s backs.
But then this is a system that managed to convict Martha Stewart of conspiracy to obstruct justice for erasing a call to her broker off her calendar (she put it back same day) while at the same time letting Bernie Madoff run wild for decades. Hey, Martha was an easy target. And when you get measured on the number of cases you close, you chose the easy ones.
I read in the New York Post the other day that seven police were involved in arresting a young man (evidently he gave them some lip, his real crime) in Times Square for the horrendous crime of (ready?): “performing in a costume without a permit.” Well, there’s a real danger to the public! Laying aside the issue of it being a bit difficult to determine what constitutes a costume in New York City, I’d like to think there are better uses of public resources.
Or maybe I should just be grateful we don’t get all the government we pay for.