Peach Street Distillers in Palisade is the perfect example of what makes our country so great, and yet so frustrating.
The company rose to the challenge of the coronavirus crisis and switched its efforts to producing hand sanitizer.
But it was a short-lived effort because they soon ran low on key supplies and government regulations and standards got in the way, “especially for packaging,” the Daily Sentinel reported.
Adding insult to injury was the obnoxious Google ad that proliferated throughout the Daily Sentinel’s article, purporting to sell hand sanitizer from a company in China.
A quick check of the Better Business Bureau showed dozens of complaints the “company” called Best Dang Stuff never delivered on their orders of face masks and other supplies they hoped would protect them from COVID-19.
Best Dang Stuff just kept the money.
What’s fascinating and so telling is that American consumers know they can’t get these simple products in their own community, but believe it would still be available in China, the epicenter of the whole freaking pandemic.
And why would they think that? Because they know China is not as heavily regulated as U.S. companies and most of these products probably came from there in the first place.
There’s an important lesson here for government leaders to see the results of their heavy regulatory hands.
While some government agencies are tending to the medical side of the crisis, others tasked with the economic reboot would do well to start reviewing regulations that can be eased to quickly kickstart local businesses after all the shutdown and stay-home orders are lifted.
We’re not advocating to completely deregulate or govern like China. But if American consumers are looking to China to provide basic necessities in a crisis of China’s making, then our regulatory regime has utterly failed.