Bad government vs. good work ethic

Bill Cramer, Las Vegas

Friday, Dec. 27, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

Local governments place too many obstacles in the path of young budding entrepreneurs wanting to start something in their basement.

When I was living in a foster home in the early ’30s, I was treated as one of the family. My foster mother started me on a small but good business experience. Selling “farm-fresh eggs” door to door, I made 10 cents a dozen and developed a regular set of repeat customers.

I made $2 a week and did the same thing with black walnuts, gathering them, cracking them open and selling the meat. And just like my egg business, I developed repeat customers.

I did OK, but more important, thanks to my foster mother, Mrs. Whitsett, I developed a good solid work ethic — a work ethic that followed me as a Marine in World War II and into successful business after the war.

In today’s scheme of things, a young Thomas Edison would be stopped dead in his tracks before he accomplished a thing. Maybe Ronald Reagan had a point when he said, “Government is the problem.”