Lecture inspires student business

Robert Frommer, staff attorney with The Institute for Justice, speaks on economic liberty on Feb. 24

The dream of starting a business in America is often a dauntless task and some feel that it is becoming more difficult. There is a group which examines constitutional law and its effect on average Americans. The Institute for Justice has made its mission to help protect “economic liberty, school choice, private property rights, freedom of speech, and other vital individual liberties.”

The organization is a public interest law firm with about 80 people on staff in six locations throughout the country. Of those workers nearly 20 people are touring the country giving lectures to students and communities. One of those touring speakers is Robert Frommer.

Frommer, a staff attorney with The Institute for Justice gave multiple lectures for students and faculty at Georgia College on Feb. 24. Frommer’s trip was made possible through the Koch Charitable Fund, which sponsors speakers to give lectures across the country.

Included in the lecture was information on a new project on street vendors in America and how their battles fit into the institutes’ work to protect economic liberty.

“The general idea of economic liberty is the right of Americans to earn an honest living free from unreasonable, undue, or arbitrary government restrictions,” Frommer said. “It’s perfectly fair to regulate businesses to make sure that they aren’t using force against people; a real problem that we can identify. Unfortunately the regulations that we see throughout the United States go far beyond those legitimate regulations and really start becoming obstacles to peoples right earn an honest living.”

Frommer cited U.S. census statistics, which lists 760,000 street vendors nationally. These vendors combine to nearly $40 billion in the national market. These vendors are subject to local laws, which stipulate what, where, when and how vendors sell their products.

Sophomore political science and pre-law major Chris Williams came up with a plan to become a street vendor in Milledgeville. Williams hoped to sell hot dogs and bratwursts to people after restaurants downtown closed. He was told that he needed a transient license to sell food on the street. The license, however, was not a one time fee. Williams was told that he would need to spend the required one-hundred dollar fee every night during which he sold food downtown.

“We haven’t gotten past calling the local government and seeing what the rate would be and then giving up after being told that rate,” Williams said. “If there were a smaller license I might understand because you can’t really do anything for free these days. One-hundred dollars would definitely make it more difficult for such a small operation.”

Frommer explains that interest groups form to petition the local government to add layers of procedures to limit the number of incoming business competitors.

“As you see, economic regulations are all encompassing. And because they are so easy to pass, so easy to get into effect, they’re used by interest groups all the time to stifle competition and protect themselves at the expense of competitors and the public,” Frommer said. “Cities that have a lot of regulation make it hard for vendors to start up. They have less spending. That’s basic economics. If you raise the cost of entering a business, you have less people enter the business.”

Ken Farr, chair of the Economics and Finance department, listened to the lecture and then looked at the issue of street vendors from the perspective of a “brick and mortar” competitor.

“I can’t say I would welcome them but I would certainly not seek out government help to prevent them from being able to compete with me,” Farr said.

Without government regulation, many economists believe that an economy regulates itself through competition.

“The market will take over. If people don’t like it they’re not going to be able to stay in business. They won’t be down there,” sophomore environmental  science major Sam Ovett said.

Ovett saw Frommer present in his Economics and Society class and decided to come watch another lecture.

Having not presented at a school in nearly a year, Frommer travelled to discuss and raise awareness for restrictive government regulations, which he and his colleagues defend against.

“As a litigator, I’m the sharp end of the spear. I’m the one who goes after the government when they violate people’s rights,” Frommer said.