A smoke, a drink, and maybe a bag of chips in the privacy of your own home — they’re the guilty pleasures of life for many of us. But it’s increasingly hard to escape those who want to deny them to you — for your own good.
To take one small but irritating example, this Wednesday, the city council of Elk Grove, California, will consider a bill to ban smoking in all apartment buildings, publicly or privately owned.
You might see this as an effort to “harass the people and eat out their substance.” Others prefer to call it “public health policy.”
Earlier this year, Ronda Storms, a Republican state senator in Florida, introduced legislation to bar the use of food stamps to purchase “salty snack foods” and sugary treats. She’s nicknamed the legislation the “No Twinkie Left Behind Act.”
New York Times’ food columnist Mark Bittman praises Storms for raising the important question: “How do we regulate the consumption of dangerous foods?… The government isn’t doing its job,” he argues.
Bittman quotes Storms approvingly, “It’s just bad public policy to allow unfettered access to all kinds of food.”
True enough, as Storms argues, the long-suffering taxpayer is on the hook for food-stamp purchases — as well as treatments for Type 2 diabetes — and he who pays the piper gets to call the tune.
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