I was in Germany for the first time the other month (on business), and I had been pretty eager to try the fabled German beer. Turns out that in Germany there are local monopolies granted to breweries – In the city we were in we could go to a bar and choose between light beer or dark beer (one brand). Allegedly this is to protect the breweries from the evils of competition. The breweries have a right to exist and force (well, if you want a hassle-free beer) their product on a certain population whether the beer they produce is good or not. Unfortunately, the beer (Frankenheim Alt, or something like that) sold in the city of Dusseldorf is mediocre at best. There are many nationally-distributed brands in the US that taste better (granted, most nationally-distributed brands in the US taste like chilled piss, but there are some good ones – and hey, we have choice), and it couldn’t hold a candle to the lamest of our microbrews. Extremely disappointing.

@CRC I can’t speak for the blogger, but I run a small business also. An amazing percentage of my time is spent with compliance with regulations (state of California) and legal requirements – and we’re an “office-based” company (no special licensing, no hazmat, pretty basic safety, etc). I’ve outsourced as much as I can – at a cost of roughly $2,400 per employee per year – money I’d much rather just give to the employee. The overhead as measured on a “per employee” (marginal) basis shrinks as you grow, so larger businesses have a significant advantage here. Many small businesses risk just blowing off compliance until they grow to a certain size. Maybe I’m a bad businessperson for not doing that as well.