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Comment by joshuahedlund | Hacker News Reader

I remember getting outraged by some outrage-inducing article a few years back, but after seeing the kids in my neighborhood year after year now I wonder, was that just a viral exception? What percent of unlicensed lemonade stands get shut down these days anyway?

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Every time I see one of those outrage inducing articles, I assume there was a lot of backstory missed and this is just how the situation bubbled up.

For example, if a neighbor calls in a kid's lemonade stand, I'm assuming that neighbor has had multiple issues with that family and can't make any headway, so shit just blows up. I'm not saying it's right, but I doubt someone just wakes up and says "HELL NO!" to an 8 year old's 3 hour project on the sidewalk.

I see you have little experience with Suburbia...

Your chances of living next to one of those people are pretty low, but it's a big country, and there are a lot of busybodies just waiting to trounce someones fun.

> I'm not saying it's right, but I doubt someone just wakes up and says "HELL NO!" to an 8 year old's 3 hour project on the sidewalk.

That's exactly what happens, though. There are busybodies, who missed their true calling as bureaucrats, all over the place.

Oh yes. Sometimes they also don't like the garden flamingoes, or people drying their laundry. There is a simple joy to be had, I suspect, in buying a shed load of the flamingoes and planting them all over the lawn :)

First, no, there are people like this all over the place. I could tell you stories forever.

Second, even when there is "backstory" a lot of it exists only in the mind of that neighbor. I met one of my neighbors when they came over to complain about "all the parties" at my house. The house had been vacant for the eight months I owned it, at least. (I was actually concerned people were using it, but there was no evidence to support it.)

No one likes governments that picks on kids to make sure they pony up hundreds of dollars for a business license fee. Yet somehow those governments exist. They make the news for the same reason murderers make the news, not that they're common, but that they exist.

The bureaucrats who didn't tell the busybody to screw off (in more a appropriate bureaucratic fashion) are just as much fault as the busybody.

It's a regional thing, we have bake sales all the time around here and no one checks with the food inspectors. If you get sick, you deal with it (public shaming works fairly well). Most folks around here just assume its something you do when growing up.

I recall when I was a kid we had a sort of circus event, we as kids created different events on our own. One event toss a coin onto a small saucer. Another I recall was a 2x4, nail, elastic and clothespin "gun" to shoot at cans (this was Canada so no gun culture).

You would have to pay to toss the coin or shoot a can. I think there were various prizes to win such as comic books and candy. None of it for charity this was pure capitalism.

What's funny is we were all little bastards we'd rub the plate with butter to make it slippery and nail down a can or two so it wouldn't move.

I think that's the interesting anthropological slice: Leveraging paranoia about government meddling in our lives to sell product. Encryption/security products do this, too, of course, but they don't appeal to the mainstream. The mainstream isn't sufficiently vexed for security beyond passwords and brass keys to be a product, only those with enough to protect. OK, maybe a techie familiar member installs a doorbell cam.

But in this case, they're betting distrust of the government has become a motivation within the mainstream.

>What percent of unlicensed lemonade stands get shut down these days anyway?

Is the lemonade stand in some upper class suburb where children should be accompanied at all times?

Are the neighbors busybodies?

Do the neighbors and or town government have a bone to pick with whoever's kids have a lemonade stand?

Is this in a region where calling the authorities over minor transgressions is socially acceptable?

Do the local authorities readily enable this behavior by never using their discretion to not enforce something?

If the answer to the affirmative is all of the above then I think a visit from the authorities is highly likely but most people wouldn't let their kids run an unlicensed lemonade stand in that kind of neighborhood in the first place.

I don't think most jurisdictions even have a license that's applicable to and appropriate for a lemonade stand. It's not like it's a serious commercial operation.

I think the main point should be, this article is essentially viral news clickbait that's empty of any valuable content. (I clicked the "flag" button, and if you agree, you should too)

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