I have some questions for you guys:
- If it were 2 little white girls selling cookies to save up to go to college I personally believe the comments below would have a completely different tone. But because it's a black guy named "Tracks" wearing $300 shoes selling candy the community looks down on it... Yes, I pulled the race card, it's the perfect time for it, and I'm a pasty ass white kid. I laugh at "nigga" jokes like everyone else but this is just the perfect example of subtle racism, something it took my black friends a long time to explain to me.
Just a few weeks ago, didn't hacker news have a link on the front page about how kids (white county kids) across the US are being handed hundred dollar fines for operating Lemonade stands without $400 food permits. Lemonade stands are also "illegal".
THIS is the problem with America, it's turning into Anti-Business Europe. Selling anything requires 12 pounds of permits and licenses. THIS is what is slowly killing the US, THIS is what Steve Jobs was talking about when he complained to the President that building factories in the USA is so much harder than in China.
"Selling on the subway is annoying."
- Excuse me but, what the fuck are you doing on the subway that is so god damn important that you can't be snapped out of your "state of zen" and hear someone ask "anyone want candy, candy for $2" for 5-10 seconds max. The loud ass subway, underground, with no view, screeching and bumping and vibrating along. And the black guy selling candy is what's bothering you?! Again... If it were 2 little white girls selling cookies you'd smile and wish there were more little entrepreneurs like them in the world.
If it were "annoying" people wouldn't be giving him 50 thousand dollars a year. They wouldn't be buying his candy.
"It's illegal:"
- Says who? Law and ethics are 2 different things. In the US it's illegal to download media for personal use, in Switzerland it's not. In the US the drinking age is 21, in other countries it's 16. Who is "right"? Who is "correct"? So many laws are made by rich men to benefit rich men that over the decades our middle class has shrunki, the richest country in the world is in debt, and our jobs are being lost overseas. The Rich are getting richer, the poor getting poorer. This is what happens when well established rich men use the "Law" to keep everyone else down while making themselves untouchable. Making everything "illegal". Selling candy on the subway is not allowed, selling lemonade in front of your house is not allowed. Where the fuck can I go to make a living? The jobs are all gone too.
HOLD ON, is the Subway not public grounds? Do we not pay taxes for public transportation, pay again to use it, and we still can't sell shit there?! So I can't sell lemonade in my own fucking front yard, I can't sell candy on my own fucking public land. Do you see where I'm going with this...
Not only that but city planning, government policies, and the fact that only 50 years ago blacks weren't allows to shit and piss in the same bathrooms as whites. All these policies together have created unequal societies, segregated cities, ghettos, and deprived groups of people of all color from a future. This is the equivalent of complaining about Native Americans setting up TeePees in Public Parks because it's illegal. There's a time to fuck the law and a time to follow it.
Time after time I see posts on hacker news about white men doing semi-illegal things and making big bucks out of it. This time a black dude did it and we all piss on him. Glad to see racism is alive and well, even in entrepreneurs. I hope you all come back in your next lives as Gay Black Jews living in a parallel universe where it's the 1800s.
Your points boil down to this.
1. I'm upset because other people don't feel the same way as me
2. Closing down/fining illegal shops because they don't have the proper permits is killing America.
3. Selling in the subway is not annoying, for me
4. It's ok to ignore laws because some laws are minor and mostly ignored (i.e. jaywalking) and because other countries have different laws on the same subject.
5. If you don't agree with me you are a racist.
Oh and the whole reason we don't see it the same way as "two white girls selling things for college" is because the man is not trying to go to college. If it was "two black girls selling things for college" that would be comparable. He is exploiting his race in order for people buy his candy.
>"If you don't spend a dollar with me, either you don't have it or you're a hater," he's concluded."
How is this a respectable business model?
Who are you trying to impress?
- We've all illegally downloaded software to try it out.
- We've all hauled ass past the speed limit
- We've all jaywalked.
- We've all bought thousands of dollars of products online and NOT paid the sales tax on it like it is required by law.
- We've all taken money under the table at some point without keeping track of it to see if we have taken enough to qualify for paying taxes on it.
- We've all slowly driven past a stop sign instead of fully coming to a stop.
- We've all BROKEN rules. Because RULES are stupid. Literally, they don't look at one's specific situation or view point, rules are blanketed over everyone. Despite them being dumb as fuck like "speed limits". Study after study shows that when speed limits are removed, accidents go down. (State revenue from tickets does too).
Did you know that in many cities you have to pay $25 and fill out a form to get a permit to have a fucking Yard Sale. No body even knows, or follows it, but it's a law.
These ridiculous rules have created imbalances in our society. People/businesses who HAVE money can easily apply for permits and licenses and continue making MORE money. PEOPLE who NEED money can't afford these things.
"Well that's spam" some people say. And what the fuck is ADVERTISING (billboard, junk mail, posters)? State sponsored spam. So rich people can spam and make money but poor people can't?! Those with money can advertise on billboards on the side of highways that distract you from driving, they can advertise on TV commercials, they can advertise using Junk mail which cannot be stopped because there's no "do not mail" list. People with money are allowed to piss us all off. But when those who don't have money try to advertise using plastic signs on the side of public roads, that's "illegal" and they get taken down within 24 hours by the city. There's no place for people without money to get free advertising or a place for them to sell their products or services. Hell, we can't even start businesses in our own homes because of zoning laws.
And we're going to sit here and talk about rules... Fuck the rules.
I take it you've never ridden the subway.
HOLD ON, is the Subway not public grounds? Do we not pay taxes for public transportation, pay again to use it, and we still can't sell shit there?!
Yes, there is a public good that you aren't allowed in engage in a profit making enterprise to take advantage of. "Public ground" is not the same as open, predatorial grounds.
We pay taxes on the streets and "we" still can't setup toll booth with which to shake down motorists...
Selling candies illegally isn't as obvious obnoxious as other shakedown scams but the point is it not a "victimless crime" or a situation where someone is violating some private rent-seeking effort (IE, ignoring the "intellectual property" of a patent troll). It's violating boundaries that are there because most subway riders want them there.
I commend the entrepreneurial traits this man showed, but I don't see how you can simply dismiss the fact that he's profiting from a tragedy-of-the-commons situation. Just because there are some good things about his attitude doesn't mean he can't be criticized.
This story isn't really about the wealth-producing sort of entrepreneurialism that I come to HN for, so I'm not surprised there are negative comments on this post.
And you're right this story is different than the norm on HN. I wanted to relate those criticizing to something they understand like patent trolls who try to rip others down or someone criticizing another for going for it while they sit behind a desk for 40 years implementing 1% of someone else's vision. My point was that maybe they should be rooting for the person that goes for it whether it's a SV startup or selling widgets on the street.
It matters. Like someone else pointed out, the fact that it's illegal minimizes his competition.
You could make a business making and selling child pornography, and for awhile, you'd be making a lot of money, too. ("But child pornography actually hurts people," you cry, "so it's a terrible analogy!" Shut up. The analogy isn't about the crime, it's about the lack of competition.)