That sounds like a scene straight out of a mobster movie, but two teens in New Jersey learned that hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit doesn’t necessarily pay off.  In fact, it can get you slapped down by the powers that be just because some busy-body thinks you might be doing something you shouldn’t.  From The Sovereign Man blog:

Case in point, last week, two teenagers in New Jersey were going around their neighborhood advertising their snow-shoveling service right before the big storm hit.

Seems pretty enterprising. But in the New America where security trumps all else, a local resident called the police to report about the teens’ “suspicious activity”.

It’s the starkest example of how “if you see something say something” is one of the most enslaving, destructive mantras in history.

Police actually came out to investigate since, apparently running a snow-shoveling business is something that only criminal terrorists would do.

Even when the police saw that it was just two harmless kids trying to earn some money, they didn’t let them go on about their business.

Instead they forced them to stop. Because in the Land of the Free, it seems you need a permit in order to offer to shovel snow for people.

And so these two entrepreneurial teenagers were sent home by the police for their lack of permitting after being suspected of suspicious activity by a local resident.

These kids, hoping to EARN some money through hard work were sent home to sit on their butts.  Want to bet they ended up angry, bored, and thinking up ideas that weren’t quite as productive as shoveling snow?  Welcome to the nanny state, my friends.