Soon You'll Need a License to Breathe

I'd love to auction off some state inspectors on eBay, but I don't think anyone would bid. What on earth would you do with the waste of space that these bureaucrats are?

Via Radley:

The state of Pennsylvania has shut down the eBay business of Mary Jo Pletz, who started the endeavor so she could earn money at home while caring for daughter, who had developed a brain tumor. Not content with merely running her out of business, state officials are also prosecuting her. One inspector who visited her home threatened that they were "drawing a line in the sand."

Her crime? Selling goods on the Internet without an "auctioneer’s license."

You might think there's more to this saga, that surely you're not getting the whole story — but really, that appears to be it. I suppose that according to the state of Pennsylvania, 99.999% of people who have ever sold anything through eBay or another online auction site are lawbreakers.

Let me come clean right here: since 1999, when I joined eBay, I've violated the state's law over a hundred times. I'm lucky, because at a $1,000 fine per infraction, I owe only a little over $100,000. Mary Jo Pletz (who says she paid income taxes on whatever she made, by the way), auctioned off an estimated 10,000 toys, videos, sports memorabilia, tools, infant clothes, and other items on eBay. So potentially, her fine could run to $10 million.

Comments

[Jerry]

Maybe if we tax breathing, we could mandate that people stop brething for a few minutes a day to help global warming.

[Hittman]

We really should be able to sue state officials for being this vile. Not sue the state (although they should have to pay a hefty fine for allowing this nonsense) but sue the induhvidual. Sue him for everything he's worth. Force him to sell off his personal property to pay the bills.

Just don't let him do it on eBay.