What the State Does

What happened to the 13 year-old entrepreneur who, in an attempt to make ends meet for his family, purchased a food cart and was shutdown by the state? He and his family are now homeless:

Several weeks after a city zoning officer shut down his hot dog business, 13-year-old Nathan Duszynski and his parents are homeless.

The family was hoping Nathan’s hot dog cart could help them through a difficult time. Nathan’s mother, Lynette Johnson, suffers from epilepsy and his stepfather, Doug Johnson, has multiple sclerosis. Their illnesses have restricted them from finding permanent, full-time work.

The family receives about $1,300 a month in disability payments, Medicaid and food assistance. The three are having a hard time staying together. MLive confirms what the Mackinac Center learned Thursday — Nathan and his mother are staying at the Holland Rescue Mission.

“Nate and I are now in a shelter,” Lynette Johnson said. “Doug can’t stay with us because he takes prescription narcotics to deal with his pain and the shelter does not allow him with those kinds of drugs.”

This shouldn’t surprise anybody, making families of 13 year-old entrepreneurs homeless in order to protect the politically well-connected from competitors is what the state does. In factm in a rare demonstration of honesty, the state simply admitted to protectionism instead of trying to wrap a layer of regulatory bullshit around their misdeed:

Last week, Nathan and his family made an appeal to the Holland City Council. Mayor Kurt Dykstra defended the city’s ordinance, saying it was to protect downtown restaurant owners, who asked that the “success of the downtown district not be infringed upon by those who don’t share in the costs of maintaining the attractiveness of that space.”

It’s a good thing we have a big powerful violent state in place to protect the “success of the downtown district” from dangerous 13 year-old entrepreneurs.