Some people deserve to succeed! A tale about the experiences of two would-be restaurateurs in my area.
Lawyers gotta lawyer. They become politicians and – write laws. Some of those laws sound fairly reasonable, for example, food safety laws. Libertarians might argue that food safety laws for restaurants are unnecessary; any restaurant which causes gastric distress in its clients will go out of business very quickly. But the lawyer/politicians write the law anyway and pass it on to the bureaucrats for implementation.
Bureaucrats gotta take even reasonable laws and turn them into soul-killing impossible regulations. We have to do something with all those young women who emerge from college with a great sense of their own personal worth and no marketable skills. They make exemplary bureaucrats. Hence this tale of two efforts to open small restaurants.
The first was a well-funded experienced person who bought a modern building and – with great fanfare – announced plans to turn it into his new restaurant. However, the building had not been designed initially as a restaurant, and required extensive alterations for the kitchens – with all that implies about permits, reviews, further permits, hearings, fire department reviews … Days turned into weeks; weeks turned into months; months added up to more than a year –- and the would-be restaurateur eventually ran out of money and had to give up. The business never opened.
The second was an entrepreneurial family from South America. They bought a dilapidated old building and renovated it into an attractive seating space. There is no kitchen in the building, only facilities to wash dishes – thus avoiding most of the regulatory process. The family brought in a lightly-regulated food truck, and installed a pass-through window into the indoor seating area. All the food preparation takes place in the food truck. The business opened quickly, and is deservedly doing well.
Doubtless, somewhere a group of politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats are conspiring to make sure this kind of end run of their system can never happen again. Just imagine how glorious the world would be if those people were instead working hard to make things happen rather than to prevent businesses getting up and running!