John Stossel writes about how congress creates, on average, one new crime a week. This one jumped out at me:
The National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) received an anonymous fax that a seafood shipment to Alabama from David McNab contained "undersized lobster tails" and was improperly packed in clear plastic bags, rather than the cardboard boxes allegedly required under Honduran law. When the $4 million shipment arrived, NMFS agents seized it. McNab served eight years in prison, even though the Honduran government informed the court that the regulation requiring cardboard boxes had been repealed.
Imagine that, eight years for lobster tails; and not one day in jail for standing in front of a polling place, glowering and intimidating voters as if we were some third world wild-wild west African country in which some guy named Goodluck Jonathan was the front runner for president.
Also - say you were thinking about starting your own business: importing seafood, or auto parts, or flowers. What would you identify as the biggest obstacle to your success? Transportation, financing, currency exchange? Or US government regulations?
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