Is There Anything We Are Still Free To Do Without Government Permission?

The American Dream
July 18, 2011

If you plan on using the bathroom before you get done reading this article, you might want to check with the government to see if you are still allowed to do that.  There are very, very few things that Americans still have the freedom to do today without government permission.  Back in the old days, if young kids wanted to earn some extra money they would set up a little stand outside and sell some lemonade or some cookies.  For many little kids, this was their very first practical experience with making money.  Once upon a time, you would see lemonade stands all over the place during the summer in America.  In fact, “lemonade stands” became such a part of American culture that people knew exactly what you were talking about the moment you mentioned them.  Even up until a couple of decades ago, nobody would have ever dreamed that little kids would need the permission of the government in order to set up a little stand to sell some lemonade or some cookies.  But today, everything has completely changed.  If you are a little kid and you try to sell some lemonade in “Amerika” today, the authorities will swoop in and shut you down in a heartbeat.
This is happening all over the nation.  Recently, three little girls in Midway, Georgia decided that they would set up a lemonade stand so that they could raise some money to go to a waterpark.  Well, the stand was up for just one day before the police came by and cracked down on the girls.
Apparently “the law” requires that anyone selling anything to eat or drink in Midway must get a “business license” that would have cost the girls $50 a day.
Needless to say, the girls were not going to be making $50 a day selling lemonade, so they are effectively banned from ever having a lemonade stand.
So what is the big deal?  Well, the police in Midway say that “health and safety” are the primary concerns.  The police chief in Midway put it this way….

‘We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, or what the lemonade was made with”

Really?
Does the government now have to know everything?
This is an example of how the “nanny state” has gotten completely and totally out of control.
But this is the same kind of philosophy that caused federal agents to conduct a surprise raid on an Amish farmer at 5 AM one morning because he was selling raw milk.
We no longer have the freedom to grow food or make something to drink and sell it to our neighbors.
To the control freaks in government, that is way too “dangerous”.
Even young kids recognize how crazy this all is.  The following is what one of the young girls had to say after the lemonade stand was shut down….

“It’s kind of crazy that we couldn’t sell lemonade,” added 14-year-old Casity Dixon. “It was fun, but we had to listen to the cops and shut it down.”

Yes, Casity, it is crazy.
The following is a video news report about the shutting down of this lemonade stand….

• 
   

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.  In fact, this kind of thing is happening all over the nation.  The following are some more examples….
*In Hazelwood, Missouri two young girls scouts have been permanently banned from selling girl scout cookies in the front yard of their own home.  A neighbor ratted them out and the police swooped in rapidly to shut them down because the girls were violating a city ordinance that bans “the sale of commodities” from a home.
*Back in June, a lemonade stand run by some kids in Maryland that was raising money for a pediatric cancer charity was shut down and authorities originally slapped a $500 fine on their parents until bad publicity forced them to rescind the fine.
*In Tulare, California one little 7-year-old  girl recently had her lemonade stand shut down by authorities because she did not have the proper business permits.
Unfortunately, this is just part of a larger trend.  The more that government expands, the less liberty and freedom we are left with.  Yes, there will always be a need for government, but our founding fathers intended for government to be much, much more limited than it is currently.
In Amerika today, if you want to do almost anything you must get the permission of the government to do it first.  And usually you have to pay a fee for that permission.
For example, if you want to get married you have to get the permission of the government.
If you want to open a business, usually there is at least one license that you have to get, and in many areas there are several different kinds of licenses that you will have to apply for.
If you want to drive somewhere, you must have a license to drive, you must have your car registered, you must have your taxes paid and in many areas you must have one or more inspections of your vehicle done on a regular basis.
In fact, it is very difficult to think of anything that one can do (especially outside of a home) without the permission of the government.
In the United States today, we are being strangled by a never ending onslaught of laws, rules and regulations.  Every single moment of every single day there are control freak bureaucrats out there that are dreaming up more rules and regulations to impose on us all.
Anyone that believes that this is still “the land of the free and the home of the brave” is delusional.
Today Amerika is a land of overwhelming bureaucracy where control freak politicians constantly tell us all how to live.
From the moment that our children enter school they are programmed to accept this system.  In a previous article entitled “18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons“, I commented on how the nature of our public schools has fundamentally changed….

Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons.  Most parents don’t realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school.  Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded, searched and controlled like never before.  Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school, but today our public school students are being handcuffed and arrested in staggering numbers.  When I was young we would joke that going to school was like going to prison, but today that is actually true.

In previous times, Americans put up with a little bit of uncertainty and a little bit of danger because we wanted to live free.
But now we have all become so frightened and so cowardly that we are actually thankful when TSA officials feel up our private parts because we believe that somehow it is making us “safer”.
Many weak-minded Americans that love all of this “security” insist that if we don’t like how this nation is being turned into a prison then we should just leave.
Well, where in the world would we go?  The sad reality is that the entire world has bought into this philosophy.  In fact, there are many nations that are even worse than the United States is.  I discussed this growing trend in a recent article entitled “32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid“.
The entire globe is being transformed into a police state.  Governments all over the planet are constantly figuring out new ways to more tightly control their populations.  Everywhere you look, liberty and freedom are on the retreat.  We are being told that it is for “our own good” and that more control will mean more “safety and security” for humanity.
But every totalitarian regime in history has ended badly.  With all of the sophisticated technology that we have today, the ability to control people is potentially greater than ever before in history.  As the world becomes a little bit more like a prison grid every single day, the potential for abuse grows.  If someday all of this power gets into the wrong hands, it is going to be a nightmare unlike anything we have ever seen before.