Tyrannical Law Will Throw Waiters in Jail Who Offer Customers Unsolicited Plastic Straws—Here's the Libertarian Solution

in #life7 years ago

In the land of the free, waiters and waitresses who offer their customers an unsolicited straw could soon be facing up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Seriously.

Thanks to the state of California, who has outlawed everything from plastic bags to bathhouses, lawmakers have proposed a bill to cut down pollution by using cops to punish the service industry for senselessly providing customers with straws without the customer demanding one.

Ian Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California's lower house, has introduced the bill which serves to create a police state inside restaurants.

According to the legislation, "This bill would prohibit a food facility, as specified, where food may be consumed on the premises from providing single-use plastic straws to consumers unless requested by the consumer. By creating a new crime and imposing additional enforcement duties on local health agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program."

Those who violate this insane dictate would "be guilty of a misdemeanor with each offense punishable by a fine of not less than $25 or more than $1,000, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not exceeding 6 months, or by both."

Nothing Orwellian to see here.

"We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans," Calderon explained in a press release.

Instead of incentivizing the use of paper straws or other options, the state—which owes its existence to the monopoly it holds on the initiation of force—is choosing to fight the potential for pollution with the barrel of a gun.

As Reason reports, this isn't just Calderon's crusade. The California cities of San Luis Obispo and Davis both passed straws-on-request laws last year, and Manhattan Beach maintains a prohibition on all disposable plastics. And up in Seattle, food service businesses won't be allowed to offer plastic straws or utensils as of July.

While this law may seem totalitarian and utterly ridiculous to many, the fact is that it is gaining widespread support.

Even the LA Times wrote an article in support of this type of legislation. According to the Times, "A straws-on-request policy, which would be easy for restaurants to adopt, could make an immediate difference. Not only would it save food service providers a few bucks on overhead (bulk straws may be inexpensive, but they're not free), it would convey a potent message to customers about the little plastic tube's environmental cost they may not have previously considered."

As Reason points out, celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon too, "celebrity astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson (always up for a little chiding) and Entourage star Adrian Grenier have appeared in videos where an octopus slaps them in the face for using a plastic straw."

No one here is denying that the oceans are filling up with plastic. In fact, as TFTP previously reported, the problem has gotten so bad that scientists have predicted there will be more Plastic in the Oceans by 2050—than fish.

Right now, one garbage truck of plastic is being dumped into the ocean every minute.

This disturbing reality is underscored by the recent discovery of another giant patch of plasticbigger than Mexico—floating in the South Pacific Sea. It was discovered by Captain Charles Moore, who found the North Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997.

One million seabirds die each year from ingesting plastic, and up to 90 percent have plastic in their guts. Microplastic (resulting from the breakdown of larger pieces by sunlight and waves) and microbeads (used in body washes and facial cleansers) are the ocean’s smog. They absorb toxins in the water and enter the food chain, from the smallest plankton to the largest whales, as well as humans.

See? Plastic in the ocean is a very real danger to the environment and all life on the planet. But, are waiters responsible? Should they be thrown in jail for offering a customer a straw with their iced tea?

No, and anyone who supports such tyranny does more to hinder the progress of humanity than any waiter giving a customer a staw ever would.

There are solutions—outside of the police state.


The New Plastics Economy describes how to move from the ‘take, make, dispose’ economic model to a circular plastics economy, which is both environmentally sustainable and profitable for business.

And let’s not forget, there is an alternative with massive potential which is currently prohibited by federal government: hemp. One of the most useful plants on the planet, hemp has thousands of applications, including making plastic that is biodegradable and non-toxic.

But standard plastic is made from petroleum, and the fossil fuel industry has long had a stranglehold on government and the economy. So hemp—used by humans for thousands of years—was banned by the U.S. government (along with all forms of cannabis), even though it can't get anyone high.

Several states have legalized or are in the process of legalizing the production of hemp, despite federal prohibition. Only days prior to this writing, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress to legalize industrial hemp nationwide and bring this amazing plant back onto American farmlands.

Aside from a different economic approach, innovations like those of 19-year-old Boyan Slat provide feasible solutions to cleaning up ocean plastic patches. According to the Ocean Clean Up Group,

Slat’s concept uses the natural ocean currents and winds to passively transport plastic towards a collection platform. Instead of using nets and vessels to remove the plastic from the water, solid floating barriers are used to make entanglement of sea life impossible. By deploying the proposed system for ten years, almost half of the plastic within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can be removed.
Also, on June 29, 2015, in New York City, Parley for the Oceans Founder Cyrill Gutsch discussed the partnership and showcased their first prototype product.

According to their website,

Adidas created a world first with a shoe upper made entirely of yarns and filaments reclaimed and recycled from ocean waste and illegal deep-sea gillnets.

The concept shoe illustrates the joint commitment of adidas and Parley for the Oceans and offers a first look at the kind of consumer-ready ocean plastic products that will be revealed later this year

We have reached a point where the ocean ecosystems that help to sustain human life can no longer be taken for granted. It is incumbent upon us to evolve from the disposable attitude that is represented so potently in our use of plastics. But this must be done without state coercion, otherwise what world are we trying to protect?

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This is the inevitable result of a population lacking in morals. Lack of morals leads to a misunderstanding of what actual morals are. The notion that one group of people has any right to fine or imprison another person who has not initiated force against anyone else or the property of anyone else is a fallacy. Everyone believes they would be a great dictator, yet no-one has ever met even a good dictator. Me, I prefer philosopher kings.

Typical, they fill our jails with the low level pushers meanwhile Big Straw is raking it in.

Good ole moon beam brown at it again! Typical!

Crazy laws like this is the reason I moved back home in 2014. Beautiful country, but stupid politicians.

OK making it a law is going a little too far, but wouldn't the solution be that the customer ask for a straw instead of just giving it to him. That way you will be given a straw only if you want it.

but they felt the need to criminally punish anyone who offered one.

I find myself saying this very often lately.

Thank God I don't live in the USA.

It's not all California

Yeah but your president is an outspoken racist, there's a ridiculous level of inequality and influence from the top echelon, and it's not like other states don't have ridiculous laws like this one.

You have mass shootings every other month, and guns are still not outlawed, because you have a strong gun lobby with ridiculous levels of influence.

And don't get me started about the fact that your country is trillions in debt yet still manage to find money to interfere in the affairs of other nations through war and "diplomacy"

Obama is gone now, we don't have anymore racist nonsense coming from the Whitehouse, he was the one who holds the record for presiding over the greatest growth in the rate on income inequality growth in history. Trump is the one who recently set the record for lowering the black unemployment rate to historical lows. You would be hard pressed to find a law as ridiculous as jail time for a server who offers someone a straw.

"You have mass shootings every other month, and guns are still not outlawed, because you have a strong gun lobby with ridiculous levels of influence."

No, we don't outlaw guns because we know that would only affect their availability for law abiding people, not their availability to homicidal maniacs and criminals. Those people prefer that guns are banned, they call civilian gun bans "job security". And what is a "mass shooting"? A term invented by the media and defined however they please with no actual legal meaning. And of course your statistic is quite misleading, does the number of mass shootings matter or the number killed?

I think the number killed is more important don't you? In that case France in a single year has more casualties from public mass shootings than America had in 8.

We have a strong and influential gun lobby because about 2/3 of Americans have a favorable or very favorable view of the NRA. The gun industry is not even in the top 20 for actual spending on lobbying.

"And don't get me started about the fact that your country is trillions in debt yet still manage to find money to interfere in the affairs of other nations through war and "diplomacy"

Jealous? ;) C'mon, nobody likes that, let me be the first to apologize for our Nobel Peace Prize winner starting all those drone wars, the guy we have now has not started any new conflicts and is making progress at putting an end to a number of ongoing conflicts, that is part of why he was elected.

I'll have to respond to this drivel in multiple posts, as I'm off to a wedding today and don't have the time to sit here and doesn't the crap that you're sprouting.

But I'll start now:

we don't have anymore racist nonsense coming from the Whitehouse

13 examples of Donald Trump being racist

Trump is the one who recently set the record for lowering the black unemployment rate to historical lows

You're really giving him credit for that? Let's see how it's performed over a longer period:

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Quite clearly the vast majority of improvement happened under Obama. Trump is really just claiming credit for somebody else's work

You are aware the Huffington Post is utter bullshit right?was that supposed to be a good source?
There are three false narratives the leftist media like the Huffington Post cycles through practically every week,

  1. He is a racist.
  2. He is a sexist.
  3. He is insane
    It's a propaganda campaign, Jesse Jackson does not give multiple Rainbow Coalition awards to racists does he?
    Thanks for your chart proving me correct. Thanks Trump for finally remembering all the forgotten people. Here is another chart for you, of a real divisive racist, from a leftist source

If you honestly believe my chart proves you correct, then I think we're done here. I'm not going to waste my time with somebody incapable of seeing logic.

You can't tell from your chart that under Trump black unemployment is at historical lows?