I originally posted the following information and commentary onto my Facebook wall…
Washington, D.C., Has Four Layers of Bureaucracy to Protect Against Rogue Shoe-Shiners:
http://rare.us/story/washington-d-c-has-four-layers-of-bureaucracy-to-protect-against-rogue-shoe-shiners/
Shining shoes seems like a relatively low-risk occupation. (Heck, even Andy Dwyer can do it.)
Not so, says the city government of Washington, D.C., where would-be shoe shiners have to acquire no fewer than four licenses, with fees totaling at least $337 to get into business. Oh, and if you want to shine shoes on the sidewalk, cough up another $1,200 for a two-year permit.
My Commentary: State-Sponsored poverty.
(All original portions of this work, by Rayn Kleipe, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, while all redistributed links, images, sounds, videos, and writings are protected under 17 U.S.C. § 107: Fair Use, or under Public Domain)