Today we have a new franchise report from the Federal Trade Commission to further inhibit the franchise model through more redundant paper work and over regulation, which will only serve the lawyers and give job security to the bureaucrats. However, it serves no free man in this present period. If you look at all the comments in the FTC’s franchise report and rule making session; you see dickering from both sides over phrases, disclosure topics, wording in the UFOCs from lawyers, franchise rights groups and industry associations.
If you want children to stop fighting over a toy, take the toy away and they will not be fighting over it anymore. Then maybe the children or adolescents will get along; franchisees, franchisors, Lawyers and consumer groups. The toy in this case is of course all the rules created by the FTC to provide a point of sound a fury to each side. If you remove the rules and allow the free market to justify itself you will see very quickly that the children will learn to get along better. Yet instead now we have the FTC playing parent and each child is trying to get the parent to render a decision? Why not remove the toys and the parents and make the kids work it out.
Why is the FTC being the judge over plastic shovels in the sand box? We should be letting entrepreneurs build more sand boxes, industries and business models to accomplish and satisfy the needs and desires of the consumers, rather than forcing everyone into the same box. We also need to allow for more shovels so all players can have room to move and play in the free market sand box. If the FTC, teacher, is controlling who gets the shovel for how long and what they are allowed to do with the shovel then the kids can only use their imagination so long, before they are cut short in what could have been an excellent sand castle. A castle providing jobs, points of trade and satisfied kingdom where it pays for everyone to get along is best for all concerned and it sure makes the teacher much more appreciated and useful.
If we will back off of all the incessant rules and regulations we will have kids learning to share, get along and become better citizens, not running to the teacher every time they did not get their way and forgetting why they are all there in the first place. To learn and grow, to build and create, to innovate and experiment, to serve the common good and create a win-win situation for all concerned in that period of their endeavors.
In watching the attacks in the this rule making process sand box and clarification from the teacher as to who gets to use the shovel to hit the other kids and who gets to throw sand back at who; I see a trend from outside this sand box looking in. That observation tells me that it is unworthy of my time to join in and tells entrepreneurs not to invest time or money into the franchising model at all.
The teachers have forgotten why they are there and are making it hell on the kids. Why play? Entrepreneurs, real ones, build and create and when you force them into a box you do not get their best efforts, no one does. Not them, their sand castles, employees, the kingdom, the future of the next recess period of economic expansion. The only one who will win is the little cry baby, lawyers, who runs and tries to convince the teacher why they should be allowed to have the golden shovel and why it is not fair that Johnny is building a beautiful sand castle for all the others to play with.
The FTC is wrecking franchising and allowing crybaby attorneys to argue over words, when we need live and let live so we can all prosper again. Johnny gets the shovel unless Margaret cries or Mark hits Elizabeth and she tells the teacher. If Johnny builds a sand castle too good, it must be torn down because it will make little Billy feel insecure, even though he pushed Lisa off the slide four weeks ago who fell on David who told his Mom who mentioned it to the assistant principal.
So because there is sound an fury in this little world along with some restless natives we are not going to allow Johnny to use the shovel unless he promises not to build creative sand castles and when he does immediately destroy them or give them to the other kids as soon as he is nearly completed. What is wrong with you people at the FTC and what is wrong with this picture?
I find the world of franchise rule making similar to the Six Tour de France wins from Lance Armstrong. Now the French want to redesign the course to make it easier so some one else can win, by taking out some hills? Why? They had 20 stages times six years to win. Six years to beat the best. Now since they want everyone to be equal and the same we see they are going to change the rules so someone else can win, who? Little Billy? Is this promoting strength of character, dedication, perseverance or commitment? No it is promoting a sand box of weak, less serious, less intelligent, less opportunity, less cooperation, fewer choices, so everyone can be controlled. Others feel they should just stand and spit at Lance and other market winners as the drive by, perhaps slow him done, because the other riders or market competitors are weak and cannot compete with that level of commitment.
I can understand in a sort of cynical way why France might do this, being a socialist minded society and all that. But I cannot understand why some schools cannot keep score in soccer in lower grades anymore, why sand box controls are more important than free enterprise and why we in the United Sates of America are trying to micro manage Franchising with over regulation to appease a bunch of lawyers so they have something to squabble over. You cannot get lawyers to agree on anything, why would franchise law be any different and why are we even listening?
It is time for the FTC to step back from the sand box, allow the free markets to adjust them selves and reduce the rules and allow the sand box work it all out. We have way too many crybabies (attorneys) getting way too much attention from the teacher to get anything done in the franchising sector. Let the creative geniuses build their sand castles, let the market work this out, eliminate the rules and give back the freedoms to the entrepreneurs then you will have all the jobs you want, more kids attending the school, more playgrounds to oversee and more opportunity, prosperity and a brighter future for America. We need to make room for the next set of hard charging entrepreneurs to come along. God knows little Ray Kroc was probably building sand castles as a child, he was building and creating even at that early age. Is the FTC trying to destroy the next set of up and coming entrepreneurs? Yes, absolutely, whether they realize it or not. I call that pure evil, the kindergarten or first grade teacher from hell. There is nothing more evil in the world than destroying creativity or innovation so the forward progression of mankind can be attained. Likewise all the players in the sand box can graduate to the next grade. Think on this.