Italy's antitrust watchdog ruled today that it is not OK for local municipalities to impose compulsory closing days on commercial enterprises (i.e. shops). The ruling came after a complaint against the Rome municipality, which fined shopkeepers who opened up on Easter Monday.
This precedent will allow anyone owning a shop to be open anytime they wish, be it a working day or a Sunday, without the constraint of town bureaucrats gagging business supposedly in the interest of the workers, who need in the mind of these statist wonks to be shielded from the (by default) exploitative owner and greedy capitalist.
Reactions range from relief (consumers) to outright condemnation, with the Archbishop of Pompei even calling it an "attack against God", while others point the finger against consumerism, spout unionist drivel or attempt to sound academic about changing society and shops as social space. They are so full of bull!
The very essence of free enterprise in a capitalist society is being able to do business how one wishes to. A little bastion of socialism and nonsense has fallen in Italy. Sadly there's still way to go before I can call my home country a truly economically and socially free nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment