Govt. Making Entrepreneurs Do Useless Things For No Reason
Great little Institute for Justice video about a case they've taken -- how Minnesota says a funeral home operator must spend $30K for an embalming room he will never use:
More about the case:
Verlin 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.
This is crony capitalism.
I agree. The gov'nt should force us Minnesotans to do useless things -- like paying taxes for the leeches of society.
And how about addressing the real problem. The problem isn't capitalism, you bloody lib; the problem is the current stupid law.
Clinton at January 19, 2012 12:59 PM
>> Verlin's basic services fee is only $250...
Do you have to supply your own trash bags?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWWg5shNWR4
Eric at January 19, 2012 1:54 PM
Because Minnesota is the embodiment of "the state knows best" nannyism. Every aspect of government is ruled by the higher one, the legislature is infinite in its collective wisdom (just ask them).
Ken at January 19, 2012 2:10 PM
You will find the Institute for Justice fighting a lot of this bullshit crony capitalism.
In Texas, the law requires anyone who works on PCs to hold a Private Investigators license. It takes three years of apprenticeship to get a license.
You can be fined if you work on someone's PC without a license.
You can be fined if you have someone else who is unlicensed work on your PC.
Some monks in Louisiana started making and selling economical caskets. They were stopped by a Louisiana law that required anyone selling caskets to have a funeral director's license. It takes one year of education/apprenticeship to get a license.
This isn't an isolated case, this shit is going on all over this 'free' country of ours.
Go read some of their cases and be prepared to be very annoyed.
Future cases may including the mobile pirates on unnamed websites.
DrCos at January 19, 2012 2:10 PM
'may including' ...
Karma has bit me in the ass again.
DrCos at January 19, 2012 2:10 PM
@Clinton: "The problem isn't capitalism, you bloody lib; the problem is the current stupid law."
Didn't read that as a criticism of capitalism, but as an example of crony capitalism, which, for clarity, should probably be called something else.
@DrCos: "Future cases may including the mobile pirates ..."
Only if they're driving people to work.
Old RPM Daddy at January 19, 2012 2:16 PM
DrCos is correct. This sort of thing is really common everywhere. Incumbents lobby for laws to create barriers to entry into their markets by disruptive newcomers.
A company I like, Uber, has been dealing a lot of this; unsurprisingly, taxi companies and their minions in government have been making it hard for Uber to operate, since they don't work exactly like either a cab or a limo service.
Related: Article in Slate about the way that Wikipedia and other companies protested SOPA, and argues that it should never happen again. Companies should have opposed SOPA the "right" way by hiring lobbyists to tell Congress what bills they should pass.
Christopher at January 19, 2012 4:34 PM
Christopher, that article is incredible. It's been a truism for a while now that the best investment a business can make is not to invest in hiring employees or training or R&D or capital expenses, but in lobbying. The Internet reaction to SOPA has really rocked D.C. back on its heels. As I saw somewhere else today, "Lobbyists don't elect Congressmen. Voters do."
And it seems that the funeral business has long been a business where corruption picked winners and losers. The dial telephone, and the automatic telephone switch, were invented by an undertaker who was pissed because the local switchboard operator had an arrangement to send business to a competitor.
Cousin Dave at January 19, 2012 6:30 PM
I agree that building an embalming room that he will never use i stupid.
My problem is that nowhere is it stated the section of the law is being cited/required for the embalming room or any conflict with the law.
Is there a state funeral board that is citing this? Where is this coming from?
Once they give actual detail, I'll support it. Right now it is has not citations.
Jim P. at January 19, 2012 10:26 PM
It's been a truism for a while now that the best investment a business can make is not to invest in hiring employees or training or R&D or capital expenses, but in lobbying.
Only if you're big. We're small - revenues in the millions, not billions. We invest in hiring great people and building good stuff. Our budget doesn't accommodate lobbying costs.
Christopher at January 20, 2012 12:38 AM
"Only if you're big. We're small - revenues in the millions, not billions. We invest in hiring great people and building good stuff. Our budget doesn't accommodate lobbying costs."
Precisely. It's all about limiting competitors like you. My mom and stepfather have a business of about the same scope as yours, and they are really fortunate that the traditional distribution model has not fallen apart in their industry, like it has in a lot of other industries.
Cousin Dave at January 20, 2012 3:56 PM
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