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There’s a struggle that goes on everyday
across America. While what Washington does makes headlines, entrepreneurs are
tangling with municipalities all over the country: Building departments,
licensing, code enforcement, departments of inspections and permits; the list
goes on and on.
Most of the time these struggles don’t make
news. Many would-be business owners just give up, some tough it out if they
have the patience and resources, while others hire former local politicians
who provide the service of ‘greasing the skids downtown’ and call
it business consulting.
For those that wonder about the divergent economic
worlds we live in: Wall Street’s prosperity and Main Street’s
depression, Timothy Aeppel’s Wall
Street Journal story about the trials and tribulations of
Chesapeake Bay Candle provides a glimpse as to why so many millions are
unemployed.
Mei Xu and David Wang sell
candles to places like Kohl’s and Target. During the past 16 years
they’ve been shipping candles from their three factories in Asia. But
times have changed. “To do well in this market, you need to be able to
produce and ship the next day,” Ms. Xu told
the WSJ. “That means making it here.”
Plus, the cost of labor and transportation has
soared in Asia.
The U.S. plant will employ 100 people, and more than
a year ago the company bought a former liquor warehouse outside of Baltimore,
thinking they would be open in nine months. But it’s
13 months and counting. Xu and Wang have already
spent $1 million more than planned and they don’t yet have an occupancy
permit.
The storage room Wang and Xu
budgeted to cost $25,000, would have cost $250,000 to comply with the
city’s requirements, so the company will not store as many fragrance
oils on site, making it more difficult to meet orders.
The building has to be equipped with fire sprinklers
and handicapped restrooms. In total, code compliance is estimated to be 30%
of the $3.5 million the company has spent on the plant.
A spokeswoman for Anne Ardundel
County claims they jumped right on the candle maker’s applications,
saying it was the company that was slow to respond after the county objected
to the plant’s design.
However if the county essentially tears up your
plans, it takes time to respond. In this case it was six weeks.
Ms. Xu is wisely taking
the high road, not blaming county officials. She doesn’t need anymore delays and the Certificate of Occupancy that will
allow her to open and hire workers looks to be close at hand.
The experience has made Ms. Xu
wonder if government is “really ready for business to come back from
Asia.”
Douglas French
Mises.org
Douglas French is president
of the Mises Institute and author of Early Speculative Bubbles &
Increases in the Money Supply. See his tribute to Murray Rothbard.
Article originally published
on www.Mises.org. By authorization of the author
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