Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune published an article about how the city thwarts small businesses by making it difficult  to get necessary permits and by implementing ridiculous fees and taxes.  The article reminded me of a book, The Mystery of Capital by De Soto, where the author argued convincingly that a major reason Latin-America can’t leverage its assets to create capital is due to impossible bureaucratic hurdles where permits for legal businesses or verification of property titles can take years and in some cases decades. The Trib article says that Chicago is reinforcing its already byzantine processes at the worst of all possible times–during a recession where we need to encourage the creation and the success of small businesses.

I agree with the article, but it doesn’t go deep enough.  Everyone involved in politics in this city knows that the system of fines and permits is used by the Machine to maintain its power.  Who hasn’t heard about a business that refused to put up the campaign sign of a machine candidate only to be “visited” by a  team of inspectors from every department imaginable?  Who hasn’t noticed a brand new business that had no problem getting started because it happens to be owned by the alderman’s daughter?  The bureaucracy is not merely inefficient and bad for business, it is also one of the many ways that the City perpetuates corruption.  If the City were to alleviate the bureaucratic bloat, then what would happen to the time-honored tradition of bribing your alderman for a permit or zoning change?

It’s a mystery to me that Chicagoans–tired of all the scandals, tired of having their cars towed after two parking tickets, tired of being taxed for bottled water, and tired of their small businesses being shaken down–have yet to wake up and throw the bums out!  When times were good, some may have looked the other way with regard to corruption and excessive taxation, but now, when every penny counts, I hope that Chicagoans will ask themselves the question that the Trib author asks and that Professor Dick Simpson has been asking for decades (video below): Is Chicago really the city that works?

Photo: chicagoclout.com