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Title: Can the Government Make Entrepreneurs Do Useless Things For No Reason?
Added: Jan 18, 2012
Author: InstituteForJustice
Duration: 1:56
Description:
http://www.ij.org/VerlinVerlin Stoll is a 27-year-old entrepreneurial dynamo who owns Crescent Tide funeral home in Saint Paul, Minn. Verlin has built a successful business because he offers low-cost funerals while providing high-quality service. His business is also one of the only funeral homes that benefits low-income families who cannot afford the high prices of the big funeral-home companies. Verlin wants to expand his business, hire new employees and continue to offer the lowest prices in the Twin Cities, but Minnesota refuses to let Verlin build a second funeral home unless he builds a $30,000 embalming room that he will never use. Minnesota's law is irrational. Embalming is never required just because someone passes away and the state does not even require funeral homes to do their own embalming. In fact, it is perfectly legal to outsource embalming to a third-party embalmer. Minnesota's largest funeral chain has 17 locations with 17 embalming rooms, but actually uses only one of those rooms. Why is Minnesota forcing Verlin to waste $30,000 on a useless embalming room as a condition of expanding his thriving business? So that the big, full-amenity funeral-home businesses can benefit from a law that drives up prices for consumers and operating expenses for competitors such as Verlin. Verlin's basic services fee is only $250, which is about 90 percent lower than the $2,500 that the average Twin Cities' funeral home charges. Verlin's business model is built on minimizing fixed costs, which is why he does not have a hearse or chapel, and this law—to the advantage of his competitors—stands in the way of him expanding his low-cost, high-quality approach. The government should not force Minnesotans to do useless things. That is why on January 19, 2012, Verlin and the Institute for Justice challenged the law in state court. The Minnesota Constitution protects every Minnesotan's economic liberty, which means that it protects entrepreneurs from being burdened by legal requirements that are either useless or designed to suppress honest competition. A victory here will not only free Verlin from an unconstitutional restraint on his economic liberty, but protect entrepreneurs across the state from pointless laws and bureaucracy.
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Channel: Nonprofit
Tags: verlin embalming room ij institute for justice economic liberty freedom government minnesota st paul minneapolis rational basis challenge lawsuit legal jeff rowes katelynn mcbride chip mellor
verlin embalming room ij institute for justice economic liberty freedom government minnesota st paul minneapolis rational basis challenge lawsuit legal jeff rowes katelynn mcbride chip mellor
Youtube Comments: 32
Jalreal Says:
Jan 19, 2012 - Yeah! Fight the machine!
2plus2make4 Says:
Jan 19, 2012 - I saw the title and thought that would be a a pretty good definition for governmentgovernment: noun, ˈgə-vər(n)-mənt' the organization, machinery, or agency through which a political unit exercises authority and makes entrepreneurs do useless things for no reason
torch9t9 Says:
Jan 19, 2012 - Does it have to be minimum dimensions? I recommend a room that is 28" wide and 2" deep, protected by a locked door, of course.
FTWCM Says:
Jan 19, 2012 - soon they will use our webcams to find out how often we fuck to enact a sex tax.
freesk8 Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - Yay, IJ!
d082088 Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - They have software now that they can do just that and you'd never know it, that's why mine stays pointed to the ceiling unless I'm doing a video call.
AlphaCentauri00 Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - Fight the good Constitutional fight Verlin!
mrtomsr Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - The next big fight. Once the Feds are back town to a Constitutional size, the States will step up. What we see now at the Federal level (and the State level too) will only get worse as States begin to flex their muscles. Liberty is just that, liberty. Worth fight for.
jasonaorr Says:
Jan 20, 2012 - @torch9t9 Sadly, the law does have minimum specifications (I looked it up). The room has to be big enough to accommodate an embalming table, as well as some kind of wash sink, and it also has to have certain plumbing connections.
PostiveMindBodySoul Says:
Jan 22, 2012 - The people need to be empowered again not the greedy corporations, and government partnering with them so they have a tighter grip on the people. I think a lot of crap goes on behind closed door that the "MAN" would be ashamed of and how heartless they can be to preserve resources and put people on a diet of just getting by. What I don't get is why there is even a CEO, I have thought that they are a puppet for a multi-million/billion dollar company to keeping people in their place, in all levels
jojo1953 Says:
Jan 23, 2012 - Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid x 5000
Gardinaki Says:
Jan 25, 2012 - No topic is off limits. End the Fed. Ron Paul 2012. Infowarriors welcome! Message me and ask for the link to join the discussions at my new blog. All are welcome! :) I hope to see you guys join in because there are so many problems facing us today and knowledge really is power! We are the New Age Media.
areuter727 Says:
Jan 25, 2012 - Take back the power!
Rooster55199 Says:
Jan 26, 2012 - just curious, are they making him own an oven for cremation too? Also, does the embalming room need to be attacked to the building? can he own "one" embalming room, and say it is used for all his funeral homes?
smujismuj Says:
Jan 26, 2012 - There are good/just regulations and bad/unjust regulations.There SHOULD be regulations [also known as 'laws'] to keep powerful interests from abusing that power.There SHOULD NOT be laws concerning PRIVATE behavior.It's pretty simple really.The laws should be democratically determined with strict guidelines to make sure the above criteria is followed.
smujismuj Says:
Jan 26, 2012 - And I don't really care what happens to people who make a 'living' in the funeral industry which is a predatory, and unnecessary business.
blogegog Says:
Jan 28, 2012 - I think the government should completely put him out of business by passing a law making it illegal for people to die. That'd learn him!
quantumG Says:
Feb 5, 2012 - well, we at least need the corpses removed from the streets.
marlenealvarado Says:
Mar 11, 2012 - Laws are not made by a malevolent being called the government, They are written by people who are pressured by interest groups to pass laws that favor themselves. Or in another way those who have the gold make the rules. Maybe you should go after these interest groups and not THE GOVERNMENT. Then we would have laws for the PEOPLE and not the 1%.
voogru Says:
Mar 12, 2012 - The special interest groups buy the power because the government has the power to buy. If you eliminate the power of the government to engage in such behavior in the first place, they can't buy it.
voogru Says:
Mar 12, 2012 - The only just regulations are ones against fraud, theft, property rights violations, and violence. Everything else can be abused.
eliyahugoodman1 Says:
Mar 13, 2012 - who are you to stand in between two entities that are spending their own money to buy/provide services that they choose?!! This is the basis of free enterprise!
masterskyrunner Says:
Mar 19, 2012 - We live in a strict society, not a free society.Strict - describing a rule or ruler that forces people to follow needless practices in the interest of obedience and ignores common sense
Liberty309 Says:
Mar 21, 2012 - At what point do we band together, get in their faces, and tell them NO! Tell them and everyone associated with them NO in such a manner that they litteraly piss themselves and the thought of ever thinking that they can do this to someone would be inconceivable. OUR GOVERNMENT SHOULD FEAR US! THAT'S HOW IT'S SUPPOSE TO BE. WE ARE THE RULERS, GOVERNMENT IS OUR SERVANTS. THE PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS AND THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE REMINDED OF THIS FACT! :-)
cooljj82 Says:
Jan 19, 2012 - won't that force the industry to go else where?