In the Governor Schwarzenegger’s signing of Asssemblyman Tony Mendoza’s paternalism-on-steroids bill too ban transfats, I hereby surrender my free will and declare my dependence on state government.
After all, if the state government is going to plan my diet and decide what I can and cannot eat, then what aspect of my life is truly beyond their scope?
So the Governor wants the government to be my personal trainer. Fine. Let’s go all the way and turn the running of my life over to government. I want the state to do my grocery shopping, so that my cupboard is only stocked with healthy foods. And I’ll need a government driver, to prevent my from losing control and rolling through McDonald’s.
I’ll need a wake-up call from the state to make sure I don’t oversleep, and a go-to-bed call so that I don’t stay up too late watching TV. The New England Journal of Medicine says a good night’s sleep is vital to my health, you know — and a healthier me means a healthier California.
In between, I’ll need a government minder to schedule my day, make sure I don’t work too hard, correct my posture, nag me about exercising and making sure i eat my vegetables.
Sure, it will be expensive – but how do you put a price on health? On a healthier California ? Besides, it will ultimately pay for itself in terms of lower insurance premiums, reducing the strain on the health care system, reducing emergency room visits…at least that’s what liberals always say when they want to spend more of the taxpayers’ money on some glorious new program to make us better, braver human beings.
Seriously, we should be disturbed by bills like AB97, because it illustrates how making government responsible for our health is a path to greater government control. The State of California is telling free citizens they cannot use a cooking ingredient not because it is poisonous or an immediate threat to our health, but because some do-gooders in possession of the state’s coercive power are of the opinion that we shouldn’t.
It is for our own good: six little words with which the nanny state robs us little by little of our choices, what we used to call liberty.
I expect it from a liberal Democrat like Tony Mendoza. But the one-time, self-professed disciple of Milton Friedman ought to have known better.