From Karl Dickey at The Examiner:
The Libertarian Party of Collier County announced today, May 27, 2015, their support of local business’ right to use sign holders to advertise their businesses. Collier County is growing due to the services and goods provided to everyone by small, family owned businesses that often times have little or no visibility. Small businesses often settle for less than desirable locations without easy access in an effort to keep down costs of doing business. They rely on sign holders for their ability to let the public know about their sales and services. Maybe it would be easier if they decided to use local seo services to improve their visibility as a business in the local community.
The local political party stated in an email, “Removing this advertising option, results in eliminating jobs from the local economy and hurts small business that have few other options. Many of these sign waving jobs are held by those without anywhere else to turn and it has served the community well by providing market-based alternatives for those in need.”
The county affiliate to the Libertarian Party of Florida went on to state, “As a county that prides itself on being business friendly, why do we continue to regulate our small businesses into oblivion, while rewarding privileged, chosen companies with huge taxpayer-funded grants and discounted rent on county land? That is the definition of cronyism: Government picking winners and losers through special favors and burdensome regulations. If the County truly wants to reduce the use of sign wavers then it should consider an alternative, limited government approach: relax current codes to allow businesses more leeway for traditional signage.”
Read the full article here.
I’m sitting here thinking about it and getting pissed off. Sign waving is a nice, flexible advertising medium for business owners. Many of the sign wavers I see are teenagers, or people that look like they’re pretty well down on their luck. Maybe homeless, or close to it. God forbid they make an honest wage.
I was going to say that is unbelievable that government tries to regulate people standing on the side of the road with a sign. But, unfortunately, it’s quite believable. Ridiculous, but believable.