Teenagers face $450 permit fee for wanting to shovel the snow off neighbor's driveway

(NaturalNews)That summer, so full of wonder and excitement, is what a free market should look like: someone (me) investing in an idea and serving the surrounding community in the way I knew best. The people in the community are free to choose whether to buy the product or pay for the service. If the market conditions are right, the entrepreneur is compensated for his hard work.In this free market, there is no one coming along to steal from his service, his business. There's no government looking to tax him. The prosperity was not created by a government bureaucracy and it should not be micromanaged by one. The prosperity remains decentralized and rightfully so. The individual is free to manage the fruits of his own labor. In my case, I bought my own modest car and donated the rest.What we are seeing today is the opposite of free markets. Children who start lemonade stands are now targeted by government enforcers who force the children to shut down the lemonade stand or face permit fines.The human spirit seeks to provide and share, to do work that matters, to serve and be independent. The government is now a vehicle that takes from these endeavors, forcing individuals to submit, comply, and become docile and dependent.The free market is under attack in America today. It's so under attack that teenagers looking to make some extra money shoveling snow can now be stopped in their tracks and forced to pay erroneous permit fees.That's the case for Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, two 18-year-olds from Bound Brook, New Jersey. On January 27, they traveled door to door handing out homemade flyers offering their snow-shoveling services. The weather forecast predicted several inches of snow the next day, and school had already been canceled. The boys were looking to serve their neighbors and make some extra cash.Local news reports in Bound Brook report that local law enforcement told the boys to stop going door to door. The cops said the boys were not allowed to solicit business door-to-door without obtaining a permit from the local government.The permit cost $450 and is good for 180 days. Fees like this make any small service not worth it at all. Imagine making a hundred dollars shoveling snow one day only to be forced to fork over all of the earnings, plus $350 extra dollars from your savings account just to satisfy the local government permit masters.