The Government Shut Down My Neighbor’s Business to Keep Me Safe

I’m not kidding. My neighbor’s business, which we all loved, was shut down.

Was she selling heroin?

Was she selling explosives?

Was she even selling raw milk?

No.

Chicken salad.

Back when I was a resident scholar at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, a woman on our street made the most delicious chicken salad you’ve ever tasted. I was addicted to it — and I’d never particularly liked chicken salad.

Then one day, we couldn’t buy any more from her.

I went berserk. I needed that chicken salad.

But the local government decided I was too stupid to make a basic judgment about food safety. She was told she could not sell chicken salad out of her home. She’d need some kind of industrial-style kitchen in order to satisfy them.

But she wound up getting the last laugh.

She opened her own store — The Chicken Salad Chick — and before long, word of mouth had made her chicken salad a sensation.

She now has a couple dozen locations throughout the southeastern United States.

So whatever competitor making inferior chicken salad ratted her out got what they deserved.

In fact, if you go to her main store, you’ll see the Mises Institute mentioned on her “Our Story” sign, because we loved her chicken salad and wrote in her defense.

I mention this because that’s exactly what I discuss on the show: how government stifles competition and benefits existing interests: http://www.tomwoods.com/654

I’m talking with Connor Boyack, author of the tremendous Tuttle Twins series of libertarian children’s books, but the subject is one that we adults can obviously appreciate.

Incidentally, my family and I seriously considered opening a Chicken Salad Chick franchise restaurant. There are no sure things in business, but I thought this was pretty close: it’s a product no one has tried before but that they instantly love.

It turned out we weren’t in the right part of the country to qualify as a franchisee, but I knew it would be a winner.

It’s just as well: I’m happier running virtual businesses from my computer, working on my own schedule and from anywhere I want. A Virtual CEO, so to speak. I’ve been telling you in these emails about one of the masters of this, who’s running a free video series on how to do it. Worth watching for sure: http://www.tomwoods.com/ceo

Tomorrow on the show: an Austrian economist goes very, very wrong on Austrian business cycle theory. It is our solemn duty to put things right.