The Column

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

License needed for a few minutes of free child care

I guess if you're helping out a neighbor by watching their kids for a few minutes, you'll need a license to do so. At least, that's what the Michigan Department of Human Services told a woman there.

This is from USA Today:

... Lisa Snyder of Middleville, Mich., says she takes no money for watching the three children for 15-40 minutes each day so that the neighbors can get to work on time ... the Department of Human Services, acting on a complaint that Snyder was operating an illegal child care home, demanded she either get a license, stop watching the kids or face the consequences, WZZM says ...

And this is being a rights issue and all, you know the Cato Institute has something to say about it:

... this is what people mean when they warn that an ever-expanding government threatens the values of neighborliness and community. When the government provides services for free, or when it erects obstacles to individuals’ providing those services, it reduces private provision and simultaneously increases the demand for government services. If you make it illegal for neighbors to watch one another’s kids, you weaken ties of neighborhood and community ...

Don't these government types have something better to do? Like, attempt to sprout a brain?

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