The Iron Hand Of The Food Police
John Stossel lashes out at the nannies of New York City who have decided to ban trans-fats. He points out that this is nothing more than invoking the iron hand of government to take away your right to choose for yourself what is best for you.
New York City has ordered restaurants to stop selling food made with trans fat. "It is a dangerous and unnecessary ingredient," says the health commissioner. Gee, I'm all for good health, but shouldn't it be a matter of individual choice?
A New York Times headline about the ban reads: "A Model for Other Cities."
"A model for what, exactly?" asks George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux. "Petty tyranny? Or perhaps for similarly inspired bans on other voluntary activities with health risks? Clerking in convenience stores? Walking in the rain?"
Trans fats give foods like French fries that texture I like. They are probably bad for me, but Radley Balko of Reason points out that "despite all of the dire warnings about our increased intake of trans-fats over the last 20 years, heart disease in America has been in swift decline … So, if they're killing us, they're not doing a very good job."
But that's not the point. In a free society the issue is: Who decides what I eat, the government or me? It's not as though information about trans fats is hard to come by. Scaremongers like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) are all too happy to tell you about the dangers, and they have no trouble getting their declarations of doom on television and into newspapers.
As always, Stossel is clear, concise and devastating. The entire idea that someone has the authority - nay, the self-granted right - to take away your choice over what you do with yourself is diametrically opposed to what America is supposed to be about. This is prohibitionism and we would do well to remember the unintended consequences that Prohibition brought to the US.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » A Very Cheesy New Year — Monday, 1 January , 2007 @ 7:53 am
By Finnegan, Friday, 22 December , 2006 @ 11:54 am
I have mixed feelings about this. Part of me agrees that the government has no place telling us what we can or can’t eat. On the other hand, why should the government be able to tell us we can’t use drugs because they’re bad for us, if they can’t do the same for food? Is protecting the citizenry from themselves part of the government’s mandate?