Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Reblogged: Myopic Tactic Saves Plastic Bags -- for Now

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

Are some states, at least, starting to do what the federal government ought to be doing? That's an interesting question raised by a recent AP story on states preventing cities from enacting certain new regulations, such as banning plastic grocery bags:

The
Missouri bill
goes beyond plastic bags. It also would also prohibit local governments from requiring businesses to provide employees paid sick leave, vacation or health, disability and retirement benefits. And it would block cities and counties from adopting their own "living wage" requirements. [link added]

If, as I do, you favor government properly limited to the protection of individual rights, this might sound somewhat encouraging -- until you place it in the context of the totality of the article, or merely read the next paragraph:

States have pre-empted some local policies for decades. A movement to restrict local gun ordinances began in 1971, for example, and has been enacted as law in 45 states, according to the National Rifle Association. State lawmakers in Oklahoma and Michigan this year are pushing similar measures for knives.

This reminds me of an account I cannot find the source of, I think by Ayn Rand, regarding a fruitless debate she had with someone regarding nationalization. Rand used one industry (steel?) as an example, and found herself apparently winning a mind with the points she made -- only to realize that she had gotten nowhere at the end: The other person merely replied something like, "Yeah, but what about coal?" So much for him realizing that nationalization of industry, period, is immoral and impractical.

Rather than seeing the beginnings of a movement to stop government from interfering with contracts between consenting adults, we are just seeing another tactic of pressure group warfare becoming more widely deployed. Businessmen, acting only in the range-of-the-moment to protect some particular concern, are failing to see the value of being left alone generally. Worse, their tactic further entrenches the precedent of the government dictating every minor detail in our lives. In the process, some businessmen might win the battle of the bags (or the benefits, or the wages, whatever), but will continue to lose the war to run their businesses as they see fit. In the meantime, the states -- and not just the cities and the federal government -- are becoming more accustomed to improperly micromanaging our activities. This is the exact opposite of what ought to be happening, and is a far cry from, say, the federal government stepping in to keep states and cities from keeping Jim Crow laws on the books -- or, in more positive terms, protecting individual rights

-- CAV

Link to Original

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good recollection. This is likely the source.

 

Voice Of Reason - EPILOGUE <pg 341-342>
My Thirty Years With Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir
by Leonard Peikoff

 

Ayn Rand started thinking in terms of principles, she told me once, at the age of twelve. To her, it was a normal part of the process of growing up, and she never dropped the method thereafter. Nor, I believe, did she ever entirely comprehend the fact that the approach which was second nature to her was not practiced by other people. Much of the time, she was baffled by or indignant at the people she was doomed to talk to, people like the man we heard about in the early 1950s, who was calling for the nationalization of the steel industry. The man was told by an Objectivist why government seizure of the steel industry was immoral and impractical, and he was impressed by the argument. His comeback was: "Okay, I see that. But what about the coal industry?"

 

Edited by dream_weaver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...