When bureaucrats attack...

It won't come as a shock when I say government equals bureaucracy, and that bureaucracy equals obstacles for free enterprise and personal responsibility.

Nationally, this country is in dire economic straights and many folks will be facing the prospect of pulling themselves up by their boot straps in hopes of providing goods or services that are worth the exchange of dollars in return. Dollars for things like food and rent for shelter.

Guess who will be standing in the way?? The government.

From this San Francisco Chronicle piece...

He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It's a reminder of how he has turned things around.

In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month's rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.

Read the whole thing, of course, and you will find that Mr. Moore has simply a great attitude about his plight. Others aren't so happy. While Mr. Moore will go on and placate the bureaucrats and find private shelter, the news of this will likely be a microcosm of things to come from governments top down. Too much government control over free enterprise and the pursuit of happiness.

Christine Falvey, spokeswoman for Public Works, said the department's contact with Moore was meant to be "educational."

"We certainly don't want to hamper anyone's ability to make a living," Falvey said. "Our education efforts are actually meant to support that effort by making our streets an enjoyable place for people to visit."

Really?? How about requiring a permit for the homeless that use the public streets in San Francisco as urinals??

Sounds like San Francisco is not all concerned about the homeless problem that is apparent in that city, cause if they were they would be promoting the free enterprise efforts of Mr. Moore, not penalizing them.