[dcolkitt]

I'm pretty partial to this vignette by Bryan Caplan[1] about how many headaches and road bumps there are, for even the smallest, simplest business you can think of.

"Back in February, I got the idea to create a COVID vaccination t-shirt (now on sale!). Reflecting on my past experience, I figured it would be easy...

My thinking: The whole process would be pretty fun, so I’d only need to sell a few dozen shirts to cover the cost of the contest and count the project a success. I’m still optimistic, but the process has definitely been much more aggravating than expected. A chronological list of snags...

And selling t-shirts on Zazzle is virtually the lowest-hassle business I can imagine running. Which makes me picture the horrors of creating and managing an actual business.

Indeed, I suspect that anyone who’s ever run an actual business has been rolling their eyes at my self-pity. Twelve little snags? Real entrepreneurs face more challenges every day. Unlike me, they have to coordinate a long list of products, each with their own attendant baggage. Unlike me, they have to manage a physical space. Unlike me, they have to hire and direct employees. And unlike me, they have to cope with a morass of government regulation.

I don’t care if actual businesspeople do roll their eyes at me; their can-do attitude in the face of endless obstacles still fills me with awe. Note further that in this very blog post I’ve already publicly complained more about my business woes than most businesspeople ever will."

[1]https://www.econlib.org/businesspeople-earn-every-penny/

[seibelj]

Also, a successful business tends to immediately create jobs (at least part time, if not full employees) to help it grow. People who denigrate business and the art of making profit - which truly is the art of fulfilling the wants of others - are so truly, intensely naive.

[brailsafe]

Meh, I think that's an equally overly simplistic view.

Capitalism earns its accolades as well as its criticism because it's fans want it to be this pure embodiment of helping people. But it's obviously responsible for just some of the things that help people. I think its pretty fucked up for example that full neighbourhoods of multi-millionaires if not billionaires exist in my city, while a huge portion of the people working in the jobs virtuously bestowed upon us by them can't simultaneously afford rent and savings or dental work. The dentist comes out fine, but unless you're very well covered by rare dental plans, you might lose all your annual savings with one tooth problem.

[dcolkitt]

It’s funny but the high cost of both are of those things you mention are the result of artificial regulatory restrictions on supply.

Entrepreneur property developers are ready, able and willing to build a tidal wave of housing, but are shackled by NIMBY zoning laws, building codes, and land use restrictions designed to restrict the supply of housing and push up prices for existing home owners.

The high cost of dentistry is entirely a result of extreme restrictions on new dentists put in place by the ADA. Entrepreneurs are ready, able, and willing to train or import from overseas an army of new, cheap dentists. By they can’t because the ADA hasn’t approved opening any new dental schools since 1980 and won’t let Turkish, Thai and Costa Rican dentists practice in the US.

[brailsafe]

I agree, minimally. I don't want either of those being under the sole discretion of business people. Nobody really does except business people. Overly strict zoning laws probably need to be eliminated or more carefully and frequently thought about at the city level, in part because cities let developers do whatever the hell they want on the outskirts, and prevents new dev on the inner bits entirely