A Wonderful World of Parrillas - Mises Institute
A wonderful little story on the effects of regulations, codes, statutes and what have you that try to control what we do in our private lives, on our private property. I like this one because I have just finished building my own house, and have had run-ins with building “codes”. My favorite one is the one that requires a hand-rail to be of a certain maximum size. My nice vinyl covered rail was to big, so I had to have a skinnier one screwed into it in order to pass code. Of course once it passed, the first thing I did was get rid of the crap.
A Wonderful World of Parrillas - Mises Institute
Then he told me a story that reminded me of the Three Little Pigs, each of whom built his house according to his own lights. He had two friends, also Argentine emigrants, who had built their own parillas from local materials before the prefabricated imports became available. One of them, he said, did the work under cover while the other took the high road and got permits and submitted to inspections at various points during the work.He continued, “Here’s how the costs fell out. My imported prefab unit cost me $1,200, delivered and installed. My friend’s sub rosa project ended up costing him $6,000 and it took over a month. And my other friend’s certified, approved, and inspected project ended up costing him $12,000 and took almost a year.”
But at the end of the day, everybody had an attractive, functional parrilla. Everybody, that is, but the upright soul who did his in accordance with all local laws and regulations.
He never was able to get his parrilla to work right.