Sunday is a traditional day of rest.

But for millions of Americans, that isn’t the case. Maybe they trek to the ballpark on Sundays — to watch or to work. Maybe they labor long hours, hold down multiple jobs or do shift work like police officers and firefighters. For them, Sunday isn’t a day to rest, it’s a day to shop and spend.

Good luck.

Malls open for shortened days. Many stores don’t open at all. Car repair is almost nonexistent. And the countless valuable services — doctors, lawyers, plumbers, electricians and government — are almost nowhere to be found when traffic is lightest.

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Millions of Americans struggle to live 2008 lives while businesses and governments are stranded in 1958. Many employers don’t think about their options. They simply follow the pattern set down years before.

Some businesses have addressed hours in small ways. If you look hard enough, you can find car dealers that do service till 9 p.m. on weekdays. Or food or drug stores open all night.

The Internet also has solved some of this problem. You can buy a book, rent a movie or order food any hour. That’s good business. But you can’t get your car fixed over the Internet or drop off dry cleaning.

It’s a ridiculous problem. Maryland makes it worse.

Twenty years after eliminating most blue laws, Maryland still prevents you from buying a car where you want on Sunday. I was reminded of this silly reality when I first went to car shop on Route 40 near Catonsville last summer. Not only were the car locations closed early Saturday, but they didn’t open again till Monday.

I am not here to bash car dealers. The best car purchase I ever made came from one of the dealers I was trying to visit. But I had my schedule to think about as well. And I happened to live close to some dealers that were open on Sundays.

Open on Sundays, you ask? That’s because Maryland blue laws keep you from car shopping everywhere except Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. I wanted to test-drive a few cars, and I had free time on Sunday. So you know where I went — south.

That meant I also bought my car from that dealer. I wasn’t a jerk and didn’t test-drive at one place only to buy at another. Blue laws cost some Baltimore County car dealer a sale. Not what they want to hear in a slowing economy.

Periodically, the legislature moves to end the Sunday car sale moratorium. It fails in part because the dealers themselves like the way things are. But that ignores what customers want.

The simple solution is the free market. If businesses don’t want to open Sunday or any other day, it’s their choice. But if some entrepreneur wants to open businesses that are more flexible, he or she should be able to do that as well.

It’s 2008, and Americans are pretty restless — even on Sundays. Business and government need to adapt.

Dan Gainor can be seen each week on Thursday afternoons on the new Fox Business Network. He is the T. Boone Pickens free market fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com.