How Government Harms Consumers

I was talking with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago.  This friend manages an expanding, regional chain of gas station convenience stores.  Our discussion was not a political one. He was telling me how his employer discovered that operating car washes can generate as much revenue as their largest convenience store so they had decided to start experimenting with car washes.

Enter special interests.  Unfortunately for them (and consumers), there was already an established chain of car washes in the area owned by someone with strong ties to government.  Well, the company decided that the bureaucratic expenses would be too high, and decided not to expand.

This is the kind of story that makes conservatives so distrustful of government.

Here's an even worse example of the same phenomenon.