Punishing entrepreneurship
Three years ago, Mary Jo Pletz of Walnutport, Pa., learned her 6-month-old daughter had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. To care for her child, Mrs. Pletz, 33, had to give up her job and look for some kind of home-based employment that would help her husband pay the bills.
She started selling stuff over eBay. When she ran out of her own stuff, she offered to sell other people’s items, for a commission. She ran the operation out of her garage.
Then, right after Christmas 2006, the state regulators came calling. In what many view as a test case designed to put the fear of God — or the state, at least — into other such entrepreneurs, the state agents contended Mrs. Pletz was running an auction house without proper licensing. They proceeded to shut down her business, forcing her to spend thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees as she fights their efforts to fine her, well … thousands of dollars.
Who’s behind the crackdown? Greedy politicians hoping for a new stream of tax revenue aren’t too far in the wings. Eight states have considered new regulations for online sellers, though The AP reports all have backed down in the face of opposition, mainly from eBay.
But other online sellers think the pressure to crack down on such electronic sellers comes from the established auction houses, whose proprietors may believe they’re losing market share
“We feel it’s important that they be regulated, so consumers have peace of mind,” says Chris Longley, a spokesman for the National Auctioneers Association, based in Kansas. “Public trust is being lost because of the fraud involved in Internet auctions.”
Oh, please. Pennsylvania auction licensing rules require anyone entering the auction-house business to either work as an apprentice for two years or to take 20 credit hours worth of auctioneering courses at the college level. Think that’ll help an online seller determine whether a piece of carnival glass they’re handling really dates from 1912, or whether that Hardy Boys mystery was really printed in 1933?
Most such regulatory schemes have a lot more to do with limiting competition and producing registration and licensing fees for state bureaucrats than with any effective effort to “eliminate fraud.”
In this electronic age, selling things over the Internet is a peaceful entrepreneurial activity that beats setting up a lemonade stand on the sidewalk.
And what is the politicians’ answer as these tax-strapped citizens struggle to find a second source of income to keep their families fed? Do they praise that “can do” attitude? No. Tipped off by already ineffectively regulated businessmen jealous of the new competition, they crack down on Mary Jo Pletz, in an attempt to frighten us out of trying to make a few bucks selling our old Flintstones lunch box over the Internet.
We hope they’re proud.