Dr. Do-Gooder’s Assault On Property Rights
Unfortunately, I allowed myself to endure 10 of the abhorrent 60 Minutes broadcast last night. The segment was on the NY “Health Commissioner” Thomas Frieden’s crusade to further trample property rights by forcing restaurants who provide publicly visible menu boards to also display caloric content of their menu items. The “official” reason for singling out chains is that most, if not all of these companies have already done the research into their caloric offerings and have them published either on websites or posters. I suspect the real reason that in general, the demographics of chain restaurant customers correlate with lower-income, potentially obese segments of the population - you know, the serfs that need the most nanny-state coddling. I’d also guess that big-wig bureaucrats are also less likely to frequent these chains and thus would not be subject to the price increases that would result from a mandated expenditure.
Frieden is the same thug who’s spearheaded both the smoking and trans-fat bans in NY. This is just the next step in his efforts to “protect” consumers.
Unsurprisingly, the philosophic diffusion of this ridiculous mandate - that GovCo. has no right to meddle in the affairs of a private entity - was never even hinted at. Also, predictably absent is any discussion of the fact that a consumer can simply decide not to eat from a venue that doesn’t adequately inform him of the nutritional info of their menu. Or, the free market concept that if one chain voluntarily did this as a selling point, the market would drive others to follow suit if consumers actually found value in it.
During one interview, the CBS automaton Lesley Stahl, accusingly asked a selected PR fluffer from Wendy’s “Aren’t you truly afraid that by listing the calories you’re going to lose money?” This would’ve been an opportune time to quickly dismantle the interrogation, but obviously Wendy’s would never want to be perceived as caring more about their bottom line than the “public interest” - so the accusation was dishonestly denied.
The entire glob of tripe can be found here:
