Just before this was written, several feet of snow fell on the Northeastern US. Government struggled to deal with the snow, wind, and cold.

There were the usual official school closures, bans on driving, evacuations, travel restrictions, and other limitations from a “big brother” government, that, we are assured, is intent on everyone’s well being.

Any weather anomaly, major crime, accident, social crisis, is met with similar official action, as in Boston with the Marathon bombing, or recently in Missouri. Government help or protection, resulting in curtailment of human activity, and a heightened level of government authority over the most basic of individual rights: like movement, assembly, speech. The other side of the coin is immorality from the population that gives excuse for this behavior by government.

The story is usually, “the government is better equipped or informed, is better able to “take care of us” and our needs, than we are ourselves. We’re often told to “go home” as we’re simply “in the way.”

Perhaps there are some things government can do more effectively, say, building roads… no, most are still built by private contractors. Food and shelter? No, the FEMA disaster in New Orleans dispelled that myth. And frankly, almost any disaster you can name has shown that as some of us already knew, government, especially BIG Government, is almost always, the absolutely WORST way to do or solve anything.

But how about snow plowing? As the years have gone by, government obviously has acquired the large numbers of massive, expensive equipment specialized to do this job.

True, but it hasn’t always been so, and it is often a much more expensive solution, particularly when compared to private enterprise and a profit motive. The normal average “highs” and “lows” in Anchorage, AK, are almost always HIGHER than those on the same day here, in my home town of Appleton WI. Like anyone who has spent any time in cold climates, the huge number of PRIVATE snow removal rigs that magically appear as the snow ebbs is amazing. It’s because they are paid to be efficient, fast, and courteous. Equipment and workers, buzzing and roaring away on sidewalks, streets, in parking lots and shopping malls. Very often they are far ahead of the civic equipment in clearing away the frequent snowfalls.

These entrepreneurial folk often roll by me on the street, in deep snow, with blades up. They are not “allowed” to clear public (government) streets or sidewalks. Government doesn’t like competition. They are and prefer a monopoly.

This gradual usurpation of the American individual will to “do for ourselves” and often earn a living doing it, was graphically illustrated over the weekend in Bridgewater, near Boundbrook in N.J.

Despite the official school closures that put most children at enforced leisure, two enterprising high school seniors – both18, and adults incidentally – decided to shovel snow from peoples sidewalks and drives, for a fee of course. But government was “there to help.”

The Bridgewater police tracked them down by the flyers they were handing out. After accosting and halting the boys on the street, they ordered them to cease and desist. It seems under the law against solicitors and peddlers, they could force the boys to go back to officially ordaiined sloth. with empty pockets.

According to the Bridgewater, N.J. Courier News, a local resident vented:

“Are you kidding me? Our generation does nothing but complain about his generation being lazy and not working for their money,” he wrote on Bound Brook NJ Events’ page. “Here’s a couple kids who take the time to print up flyers, walk door to door in the snow, and then shovel snow for some spending money. And someone calls the cops and they’re told to stop?”

This is sadly not an isolated example, and certainly not an “anomaly.”

Here in Wisconsin a young man I know was stopped by police and prohibited from mowing lawns last summer with a borrowed mower on a bicycle cart. He was told “it’s illegal for anyone under 18 to run a lawnmower “commercially”, that’s dangerous equipment.” And besides he needed a variety of government permits and they were petrified he would make money without paying them their “share” in taxes on it.

Others in the area had their lawn raking business curtailed because they “didn’t have a business license and work permits.”

I’ve heard from many other youths who cannot find gainful employment because by law, they cannot do simple household work or run “equipment” deemed “dangerous” or even work in a fast food restaurant before they reach age 14. Even then it requires a “work permit” issued by… government.

I started moving sprinkler pipes on agricultural land at age 8. I was hauling hay, working cattle, and driving a Ford 4000 tractor, flat bed truck, and a field forklift, not on the roads but in the fields, by the time I hit double digits. Though my dad didn’t pay me, I also ran a push mower (yep, for you younger folk it had NO motor and didn’t pull/push itself… I provided the “power.” ) Later I operated the powered kind. It was expected. Normal. And if you weren’t an idiot, safe. The outside work was my source of spending money and I used it to invest in my own enterprise: livestock projects in 4-H and FFA. Almost all of this would be “against the law” today in many if not most American locations. And it’s pure, utter, nonsense.

It’s time for America to regain a backbone. To begin again to teach children the joys and rewards of hard work, of learning valuable skills by DOING them, and in the process, learning the critical art of entrepreneurship, applying labor and thought to ideas, to produce goods and services people need… and are willing to pay for, voluntarily.

That’s why American Opinion Foundation and it’s FreedomProject Education kindergarten through 12th grade online school begins with a foundation of principle, character, and sound practical knowledge, and then teaching critical thinking skills and root knowledge like logic, and latin. And why we have expectations, assignments, homework, deadlines, and grades.

We’re teaching what American schools and parents USED to teach. Individual effort, responsibility, and a work ethic. Teaching Children HOW to Think not WHAT to Think!

www.FPEUSA.org and the FreedomProjectdotcom YouTube channel