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Everything Is Not OK
I went for a haircut today. Money is no object when it comes to my appearance – only the absolute finest will do. So I went to Sport Clips in the strip mall next to Target, with a $3 coupon in hand. Like many other fashion-conscious men, I frequent this establishment and don’t think I’ve ever had my hair cut by the same person twice. Like many other seemingly mundane things, this interests me. Well, most of the things that interest me actually are mundane, I suppose. But I’m fascinated by these young ladies. Who are they? Where do they come from? Where do they go? So I’ve applied for a federal grant to study attractive, rural, 30-year-old women who cut hair at gimmicky chain barber shops.
Well, actually, no – I just talk to them. And I learn a lot.
Kaitlyn (not her real name) just moved here from Georgia. Her husband is an auto mechanic. “He can fix anything with four wheels! Well, except my car – it runs like crap!” She went on at some length about how good he was at fixing things. His plan was to start his own shop once they moved here. They moved into a double-wide trailer that had a nice pole barn out back, which he planned to outfit with electric and a high-end air compressor, maybe even a grease pit, and start his own business.
He spent almost a year working on permits, licenses, inspections, and so on. He spoke to people from the county, city, state, feds, and the EPA. He talked to attorneys, accountants, and consultants to help wade through all the red tape. After about a year, he realized that the start-up costs were more than he was willing to gamble on the eventual success of a business that did not yet exist, so he got a job with the city, maintaining their trucks and mowing equipment. It doesn’t pay very well, but it has good benefits. It’s not a bad job, she says. Nothing to complain about. Everything is ok.
Kaitlyn did a great job on my hair, was very pleasant and personable, and is clearly very intelligent. She said that a few miles from their house, a barber recently retired. She considered buying his shop. She’s always dreamed of owning her own business. She said that’s the whole reason she went to cosmetology school. I said that sounded great – the shop is already set up, it has a large group of established customers, and she could expand from there.
She said that she spent several months looking into it, but she would need permits, licenses, inspections, and so on. I pointed out that it has been a barber’s shop for years, so the inspections, permits, and so on would already be done. She said that it would be a new business, and she would have to pay for all that to be done over again. She spoke with attorneys, accountants, and consultants to help wade through all the red tape – some of the same individuals that her husband had just consulted. She soon realized that the start-up costs were more than she was willing to gamble, so she got a job with a chain. The pay is not very good, and the benefits are lousy. One reason her husband took a government job was for the health insurance for their family. But she doesn’t mind working for Sport Clips – it’s a decent job, she says. Nothing to complain about. Everything is ok.
So how does this story end?
Well, in my view, it’s already ended. This young couple from a modest background has all the potential in the world. They’re both ambitious, intelligent, and very good at a valuable skill. They’re devoted to their family, their dreams, and each other. They dream of better things and are willing to gamble, willing to work hard today for a better tomorrow, and willing to take on the additional responsibilities that come with owning a business. They’re savvy enough with modern government to hire attorneys and consultants to help with the red tape.
And even they can’t open a new business, to do something they already know how to do.
And 30 years from now, nothing will have happened.
My Uncle Fred (Frederic Bastiat) described this as the seen versus the unseen. Progressives win elections because the benefits they provide are immediate and obvious. They give people free money with taxpayer dollars, or build highways with taxpayer dollars, or start new general assistance programs with taxpayer dollars. They’re working for you, and anyone with eyes can see it. The benefits provided by progressives are seen.
But the damage they cause is mostly unseen. In 30 years, Kaitlyn and her husband could have retired to a very nice community on the Gulf Coast and played golf for the rest of their lives. But they won’t. She’ll still be cutting hair for $12 an hour plus tips, and he’ll still be fixing lawn mowers for the city. Just like they are now.
They didn’t lose a fortune, because they never had the opportunity to earn one. Nothing happened. There they sit. And there they’ll stay.
Progressives may think they’re utopians who dream of a better tomorrow. But, in reality, they are the robotic defenders of the status quo. Everything stays the same because nothing happens. And when things don’t happen, those things don’t make the evening news. They didn’t happen at all, so there’s nothing to complain about. Everything is basically ok. And that’s the way it will stay.
Until it doesn’t.
Change is scary. You never know what might happen. It might be good. It might be bad. You roll the dice like this young couple tried to do. Twice.
Or you don’t. Like progressives do, every day.
I wonder if Kaitlyn views progressives as nice people who are trying to help her. Or if she views them as well-meaning fools, as I do when I’m trying to be charitable.
But in bed late at night, I wonder if she ever hates them for destroying her life and the lives of her children.
Probably not. Because nothing really happened. And nothing ever will.
There’s nothing to complain about.
Everything is ok.
I left her a $10 tip for a $15 haircut, and I walked out. I looked good – it really was a sharp haircut. But I felt like I wanted to puke.
Everything is not ok.
Published in General
I’ve been running my own business for over 20 years. It is most certainly not for everyone.
But we should encourage people to try.
It is a healthier society when we have living among us a greater percentage of people who are running their own businesses. We are less likely to end up with socialism when there are a great number of people who are used to having that level of responsibility and control over their own affairs (never mind that there are plenty of socialist-leaning small business owners these days). I grew up in rural communities where there were a lot of farm owner-operators and small town retail owners, among other small businesses. It made for a different outlook on life for everyone.
That is why I depart company with a lot of libertarian, growth-is-good types who cheer on the scaling-up of every enterprise and the centralization and consolidation that makes for efficiency and wealth. They may point out that everyone is better off, materially, in such a world. But the relationships of people to each other are not better in such a world.
The scaled-up world is one that is susceptible to socialism. For one thing, huge corporations are more easily regulated and transformed, bit by bit, into state enterprises, as has been happening in our financial industries. Such changes work to the short-term benefit of regulators and the biggest regulatees, alike, so that once established there is a constituency that favors them. For another thing, in such a world more people will see business as the enemy that is in need of socialist regulation, because there are fewer people among us who have had success as small business owners.
It does no good to have anti-trust regulators in Washington who can break up big companies. An entity with the power to do that is more of the problem, and not a solution. Calling on a big bully to fight your battles against smaller bullies and beat them into submission has throughout recorded history meant that your next battle is going to be against the big bully, and that is going to be a more difficult one. (Getting the big bullies and the small bullies to fight against each other in an arena where they have to compete for your affection can be useful, though.)
A way to ameliorate the trends toward centralization is by having a crazy patchwork of local and state regulation, as corrupt and onerous as that can be. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight such corrupt regulation, as we have been discussing here. We should fight the state and local bullies, but at the state and local level. And we need to make sure that if the feds get involved, it is in an adversarial relationship with the state and local bullies, where there is a balance of power among the lot of them.
I was in the plumbing showroom business in my day. We used to lovingly refer to them as interior desecrators. Maybe they should be licensed by city waste management
Congrats Dr. Bastiat! Instapundit linked to your post.
Receiving the honor of being published on (at least) two major pro-freedom sites confirms what we all felt upon reading it. It is not just one of the best essays of its kind to have appeared here this year (or ever), but it’s one of the best of the year in the entire popular literature of American pamphlets exposing the hidden destruction of human potential that our country is experiencing because of the public’s wholesale abandonment of their sacred rights and their institutions to an organized machinery dedicated to their destruction.
Phil and Skyler, I think it likely that acceptable used equipment could be procured for much less than the price shown. If you wanted to have a little side business, these would not be the greatest cost of doing business. Not even close.
Golly. Thanks very much, Mark! You are too kind.
I’ll never forget when working as a building engineer in a commercial office building, I was working in the office of this state environmental bureaucrat – I overheard him on the phone in this annoying NPR voice talking about this developer being aggravated that the approval process was in it’s eighth month. The contempt and smugness coming from this guy-I’m thinking of that poor developer and the interest and outlays he’s having to payout and he hadn’t even broken ground yet!
It was one of those events I witnessed that will continue to shape my political views for the rest of my life.
Doc:
Sorry, I thought it was past your bed time.
Now that you’re here…what I was saying was that it was not terrible, but we all feel that you could do better. You are working beyond your potential, which is good. But for the home team to consider your work really adequate, someone of so little native ability as you clearly have will need to try even harder.
If you spend less time sleeping and eating, and more time thinking, researching, writing, and editing, I would expect to see your next byline on the op ed page of the WSJ and the Claremont Review, at least. Then we’ll see about possible favorable comments.
When I was in college in the late 60’s, a boy in our fraternity house cut our hair, (on the fire escape). How would that fly today. We were all happy and he make a couple of bucks.
Hey that is just good common sense, I don’t insult anyone with scissors in close proximity to my ears.
I’ve been going to the same barbershop for over 20 years. Once, I had to get a haircut in a hurry so I went to Supercuts or some such place. The first thing the person asked me was what number of clippers to use. I was nonplussed. My standard instruction to Roger was, “short on the sides, medium on the top and tapered in the back”. Or as he called it, the usual.
It’s a great piece.
I do think you’ve set some sort of record here for likes. :-)
I think you may be right on the likes Marci. As I write, this post is at 116 likes. If you ever look at the most popular posts board the most popular post usually has 40 or so likes.
I ran a one person law firm in the late 1990’s that was a complete financial failure. But, I learned a lot that I was able to use in my subsequent employment as a lawyer inside a corporation, and, my children really learned a lot that proved very useful to them as they continued to grow up. So, business “failures” can still have their uses.
I still sleep with the hot girl who cuts my hair. And our kids’ hair.
It is not just because I am Jewish (and therefore cheap). She is quite good at it, and is also incredibly easy on the eyes.
So why doesn’t he join the Air Force and train on some serious equipment – not just cars and trucks?
It’s not as though there are no other good options in life and everybody has to rush out and start their own garage.
In that case, I’d like to make an appointment for the next Meetup . . .
It took me a year-and-a-half of being self-employed to realize my boss was a stupid jerk . . .
My wife is too expensive. She costs me every thing I have, willing of course. BTW Jews could learn a thing or to about cheap from the Scottish.
Not everyone is eligible. And that’s pretty much the opposite of American business values.
I spent 20 years in the military, so I’m not knocking it, but America and its military are great because of business and not vice versa.
I’m not suggesting that. I’m simply pointing out that if someone does want to start a garage, the government should not prevent them from doing so.
Still cheaper than an ex-wife . . .
Researching? Editing? That sounds crazy, but it might be worth a shot, I suppose…
Thanks again. I’ll try not to let you down. Although honestly, I’m afraid to post anything now. Whatever it is will likely be a let down, unless I get 200 likes or I get a job offer from National Review or something – or, dare I say it, a signed picture of James Lileks!
My case for regulating garages is the square placard turned at a 45-degree angle you will find at garages. Those are the number of hazardous (and flammable) chemicals that are on site. Many of the fluids contained in vehicles are poisonous, e.g., radiator fluid. Many are non-biodegradable (at least easily), e.g., motor oil. How these materials are disposed of is a public health and environmental issue and should be regulated.
The young man may very well be an excellent mechanic. That doesn’t necessarily mean he knows how to run a garage and protect public health and safety, which should be a government concern.
The case for regulating cosmetologists is that they handle caustic chemicals for dying and perming hair. Let it sit too long and the client will have a nasty chemical burn. The case for regulating barber shops, as already mentioned, is the use of a straight razor. Cosmetologists and barbers are regulated differently in my state – though not all states (some states don’t allow straight razors as a result of the AIDs epidemic.)
It’s all well and good to make up what-if scenarios of how the lives of these two (and similar others) could have been improved. Countervailing what-if scenarios could also be made up of those whose health was damaged if there were not public safety and environmental regulations that these two had to adhere to.
Have you bought a new hat yet? My hat size increased after my letter was published in National Review.
Oh, that reminds me! I’m going to bring copies of my NR letter to the editors on the upcoming NR cruise. I will graciously autograph them, so long as I get a 15 ounce Grolsch with the pop-top cork stopper as
a bribeincentivea favor . . .What if they decide not to offer shaves? No straight razor, no regulation?
And? The question isn’t just “all the regulation we have today” and “dump-your-motor-oil-in-the-crick anarchy.” You could have a county inspector come around once a year to see that they’re properly storing used motor oil in a drum until the disposal company picks it up. There really aren’t that many hazardous chemicals in an automobile and they’re the same ones from model to model. One could conceive of a basic waste stream mapping that applies to all garages that don’t service cars with atomic batteries. Let me remind you of the relevant bit from the post:
That’s an awful lot of bureaucracy to wade through.
Sometimes there can be laws and prohibitions to protect health and safety without setting up a monstrous licensing, permitting, and bureaucratic system. Not always, but the left always wants to jump first to the most burdensome system possible. That also tends to produce the most employment for regulatory bureaucrats. Maybe it’s not a chance coincidence.
good post dude