A few moments ago I witnessed stupidity on television. The local news was coving a story about the smoking ban in Monona. The Mayor of Monona agreed to a compromise with a special interest group about moving up the start date of the smoking ban. A committee and the council must approve the compromise however. A woman from the special interest group, Breath Free Monona, was interviewed about the compromise. She talked about children with asthma and said that the current ban start date of 2010 was too far away. Congratulations for being a total idiot. This is a smoking ban in bars. What does that have to do with children? I’m absolutely against the smoking ban, but I don’t make up crap ass reasons why. I believe in property rights and a smoking ban infringes on those rights. What next, a law banning the use of ground beef that has more than 10% fat at restaurants because fatty diets may lead to heart disease?
If you don’t like smoking, then don’t go places that have smoking. There were non-smoking bars in Madison before the ban. Some tried operating as non-smoking, but couldn’t get enough business and decided to allow smoking in order to stay in business. The anti-smoking groups claimed that many people avoided the bars due to smoking and if smoking were banned, business would increase. We now have a ban and that didn’t happen. Interestingly though, anti-smoking groups are running advertisements in cities without smoking bans that claim the ban in Madison has been a huge success for business. The anti-smoking groups use creative statistical interpretation of liquor license applications and some other select factors because not many bar owners or employees support those claims. I was at a bar for lunch earlier this month and the bar owner was being interviewed for a different reason, but they asked him how the ban has impacted his business. He said he’s seen a major decrease in business. I have no reason to doubt him since other than the two people that came with me, there was one other customer. Face the fact that the vast majority of people that enjoy going to bars also enjoy smoking. Most of the bars that have benefited from the ban are either outside the city limits or have dining areas that appeal to families. The straight up average neighborhood bars with menus the size of a napkin has been severely hurt.
Instead of a smoking ban, a program should have created to give incentives to non-smoking establishments. I have no problem with that. I believe in the free market, but sometimes there need to be minor government interventions to make it profitable for businesses to market a product that appeals to a minority of consumers. It’s too late for that of course. The anti-smoking groups won and they’ll never compromise. In the end, the bar owners and employees are the one’s that lose. The smokers will either stay home or take their business elsewhere. Either way, the local economy is negatively impacted. The anti-smoking groups don’t care about that though. It is only about anti-smoking and not for the health reasons they claim. They just don’t like smoking. That’s fine, but don’t force your choices upon others, especially when it causes them to lose their business or jobs.
I’m so sick of all these groups that want to regulate exactly how you may live your life, use your property or run a business. What happened to the basic rule that a person has the freedom to do whatever they choose, so long as it does not infringe on another persons rights? We’re turning into a society that is regulating freedom, choice and individuality into extinction.