In the absence of licensure, zoning and other regulations, how many
people would start a restaurant today if all they needed was their
living room and their kitchen? How many people would start a beauty
salon today if all they needed was a chair and some scissors, combs,
gels and so on? How many people would start a taxi service today if all
they needed was a car and a cellphone? How many people would start a day
care service today if a bunch of working parents could simply get
together and pool their resources to pay a few of their number to take
care of the children of the rest? These are not the sorts of small
businesses that receive SBIR awards; they are the sorts of small
businesses that get hammered down by the full strength of the state
whenever they dare to make an appearance without threading the lengthy
and costly maze of the state’s permission process. The assistance that
small firms receive comes largely at the expense, not of larger firms,
but of still smaller firms — or of those who would start such smaller
firms if they could.
-Roderick Long
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