Back in July, Terry Savage of the Chicago Sun-Times posted this amusing piece about little girls that were (brace yourself) GIVING AWAY lemonade and candy bars at their lemonade stand in some unidentified “upscale neighborhood”. The gist of what he was saying was summed up well in the sidebar of the piece, which read: “Three girls giving away free lemonade isn’t cute, it’s indicative of the lack of economic responsibility we’re passing on to future generations“. Which I personally disagreed with in many ways; if these were children of today’s nouveau riche who have little sense of how their wealth obligates them to a certain amount social responsibility and leadership-by-example, then the kids were actually teaching their ignorant yuppy parents a lesson in sharing your excess for the good of the community that helped make you wealthy. There’s nothing wrong with being rich, but historically in America, those who have possessed the most enduring wealth have always understood the importance of giving back some of the prosperity they enjoy. All of which may lead you to believe that I’m some sort of socialist hippy tree hugger that would support the recent goings on in Portland, Oregon, in which the local health department shut down poor little 7-year-old Julie Murphy’s lemonade stand (sending her home crying), because it was operating without proper permits. Well, Oregon being Oregon, the public outcry forced the health department to reverse their decision, and now we have former accused criminal Murphy saying she’s not bitter about the whole thing. Not bitter? This is like Karl Rove saying he’s not bitter about the failed subpoenas against him when he hid behind executive privilege in the Bush era. No, I think Julie Murphy and her mom should go to jail. They were not only violating public health laws, there’s a good chance they were violating child labor laws as well. Who knows what – if anything – little Julie Murphy was getting paid, or if appropriate taxes were being levied against the lemonade stand’s gross revenue or the staff’s income. And the local health department bowing to public sentiment is yet another example of what’s wrong with America today. Good governing is based on reasoned public discourse and letting knowledgeable leaders present sensible options to the public to vote on, not knee-jerk regulatory reactions to public sentiment. If you don’t already doubt the wisdom of the crowd theory, just ponder American Idol, YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo Answers, or read this piece by Fark.com‘s creator to see where this kind of “wisdom” takes us. Letting these lawbreakers continue to operate unregulated sets a horrible precedent. Soon you’ll have companies like British Petroleum setting up oil rigs without proper permits, manning them with children, and claiming that it was the kids’ idea and that they saw nothing wrong with paying children the several hundred dollars a day a typical rig worker gets paid.

Here’s some “wisdom of the crowd” for you:

And instead of subjecting your child to public scrutiny and embarrassment to teach them the concepts behind a lemonade stand, use this handy game instead.