#35 : Ramario -Close up Shop

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Ramiro Novel stood behind the cash register for one last time. This was the last day of his ‘going out of business’ sale. He’d run the store for forty years. He’d taken over from his father as his father had taken over from his grandfather. Three generations of Novels had run this store, and today was the last day.

For the last few years it hadn’t been any fun. Government regulations were suffocating him. He’d already been fined once, a fairly large amount, for doing business the way his family had for YEARS. One day a nameless bureaucrat in the bowels of the capital had decided that it couldn’t be done that way any longer.

The bureaucrat needed something to do. He had to justify has position. He had to stay busy so he wrote a rule to demonstrate that he was doing something, and negatively impacted thousands of small business. It had cost Ramiro a few thousand for the fine and rearranging his operation to comply.

Come to think it STILL cost him a few dollars every day. There was a reason he did things the other way. It was more efficient and cost less that way.

That had NOT been the only time. Far from it. New rules, new regs were set in place every day. Not to mention the taxes. He’d despair except that despair was a sin.

One day he staggered home from work after a long day. It had been good day for sales but he’d lost money. The new minimum wage law had destroyed his profit margin. He’d had to fire some of his help. He’d hated to do that because some of them had been with him for years. He’d had no choice. He had to fire a few or the business would go under.

He’d heard that there were going to be some NEW rules. Something about not being allowed to sell a certain flag. He didn’t make much money off of selling those flags but he made a little bit. After the law went into effect he’d make none. What to do? What to do? His profit margin was razor thin as it was.

He approached the door to his house and stopped dead in his tracks. There was a box on his doorstep. It didn’t look like UPS or FedEx. From the was is was beat up it must be USMail. He picked it up and took it into the house anyway and placed it on the kitchen table. There was an envelope taped to the side. He opened it up, took out a note, and began to read.

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