quittin' smoking

[Jeremy David]

On 3/14/06, Christopher tm <xopher.tm at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The Invisible Hand of unfettered capitalism seems unable
> > to solve this problem.
>
> That's when the Highly Visible Oppressive Hand of Fascism steps in. If
> non-smokers stopped patronizing smoking establishments rather than
> legislating them out of existence, the results might be more
> acceptable to everyone.

What's more fascist? The government ignoring a health problem because
a powerful industry (in this case, the tobacco industry) lobbies the
government to ignore it? Or the government doing its job and enforcing
rules to keep?

> > Why can't cities hand out a certain amount of licences to
> > establishments making some of them places where you can smoke, and
> > some of them places where you can't?
>
> Well, for one, I don't want to have to go to the city to ask for a
> Smoking License, a Drinker's Permit, Sex Ration Stamps, Carnivore
> Coupons, and a forearm barcode tattoo that identifies me as approved
> to walk the streets during daylight hours without my electrical
> restraining collar - but only when travelling to and from work.
>
> Okay, the collar would be kinda cool, but you get the idea.
>
> Proprietors are currently and have always been free to open a bar that
> is non-smoking. Why do so few of them choose to do so without
> governmental coercement?

Maybe for the same reasons why so few restaurants were clean and safe
prior to the department of public health enforcing food safety laws?
Maybe for the same reason why so many drugs and other foods were
unsafe before the FDA?

If every business can stay in business by maintaining the status quo,
even if the status quo is dangerous, they will not change, because the
risk is too great to justify it. Not everything that the government
does is bad. Anarcho-capitalism hasn't worked yet. Balanced
governments however seem to do a lot of good all over the world.

> --
> Christopher tm
>
> Nunc est bibendum; nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus.
> _______________________________________________
> pgh-goth-list mailing list
> pgh-goth-list at listless.org
> http://www.listless.org/mailman/listinfo/pgh-goth-list
>