A garage sale is something that people do to get rid of old items or things that they no longer need. These Garage sales are almost always held in a person’s garage or in a driveway. Overall it is a very casual thing. The unique thing about a Garage sale is that it is almost completely independent of state regulation and has little to no state interference. In a scenario of the state deciding to begin regulating Garage sales, would the lower class or poorer individuals be better off in this case?
One must note what comes with state regulation especially when it has to do with businesses. Some of the things that come with state regulations that have to do with businesses include price controls, the government would have regulations on how much a person could sell their items at a garage sale. A tax on each item, which in turn would hike up the prices of the items. Because the state is already implementing the first two regulations, why not add that people have to have a license or have to do a special course on “Garage Sale Safety,” to hold a garage sale? All of this most definitely would not benefit anyone who wants to hold a garage sale, but how does this affect poor people or the lower class? The lower class most definitely would not be better off if the state-regulated garage sales. What if a person of lower income wanted to have a garage sale to declutter and get some cash money, and they couldn’t because they had to have some sort of license? In this case, a buyer who has a lower income would go to garage sales to buy inexpensive used items and all of a sudden all of those inexpensive used items were hiked up in price because of the state regulations, and the tax implemented by the state.
Thus, in conclusion, if the state-regulated garage sales like they do with most businesses, people of lower income and class would most definitely not be better off. In all honesty, people of lower income would be worse off in this scenario than the average middle-class person.
The Dreamer 