But its not rational to drink either, its not rational to hang glide, its not rational to snowboard, and etc.. There are many external costs to all sorts of things where do you draw the line banning things that don't seem rational? You argue about smoking but in terms of the dangers to public health of alchohal addiction from both alchohal related diseases, drunken driving, sexual assaults and other acts of violence caused by alchohal that alchohal is probably as dangerous if not more so than tobacco. Should we then ban bars from serving alchohal are you going to say that like the tobacco ban if we ban alchohal from bars they will make more money now since all those people who don't like to drink or be around drunk people will now come out and the only thing holding that back is that the free market isn't optimized enough?
Because those with the ear of government officials know better than the owner what is best for the owner's business. . . well . . better yet they don't g*ve a d*mn about the owner or his business. . . they want it their way and they don't want to give the owner a choice in it .. they simply want it their way . .and they can have it their way through OVERPOWERING of the owner .. so they user their power to FORCE the owner to do what they want Rocket River
It is basically the government's job not to interfere with activities that the free market should preside over. But once that market has been proven to be inefficient or corrupted, they must step in. Such is the case with the smoking bans in public areas and now bars. Do you really think that bar owners and operators want to allow smoking in their establishments? It is a huge safety and health concern, but these owners have never been able to ban smoking because it would drive out a high percentage of their clientele. It has been socially accepted to smoke in bars for so long, that nonsmokers have basically just lived with it, even though it is highly unfair to them. I am willing to concede that if the nonsmoking masses were really so gung ho about this idea, then the concept of a purely nonsmoking bar should be able to have some impact in the market, and it is puzzling why few attempts have been made to do this. However, there is no doubt that smokers make up the minority of the population, and ultimately they should not be allowed to expose others to health hazards, even if the market doesn't really demand for it to happen. Personally, I find it sickening that a person would light up a cigarette and expose others to health hazards, as it just seems plain indignant and immoral. I am not a smoker myself, but I live in Las Vegas where I constantly see patrons at casinos breathing smoke in players and dealers' faces. I am appalled that smokers can do this in good conscience. I'm not a fan of government interference when it comes to civil liberties, but this is simply a case where Americans shouldn't have to be exposed to dangers whenever they frequent their local watering hole. The standard counter-argument is, "Well if you don't like it, just stay home." but is that as fair or compromising as me saying, "If you don't like the smoking ban, just smoke outside or in a desginated area?" At least the ban lets everyone live in relative peace.
LOL, well OF COURSE I'm using hindsight reasoning. Can you think of any reason, when assessing laws or policies, that we should NOT look to prior instances and real world results, and they should just be abstractly formulated? That's just crazy. Because its unclear that bans have been in place long enough to prevent the race to the bottom - why don't we repeal all child labor laws or EPA regulations, I mean they've been in place for a long time, right? ...because declaring it illegal is not an optimal solution. Forcing bar patrons to take it outside (just like now they are forced to take a sh-t in the toilet) works very well in practice. This is not that hard, really. This same argument was trotted out regularly by business owners in the South during the days of segregation.
I went to a bar in Highland Village last night. I was there for about three hours. During the course of my stay, I smoked six cigarettes, but they were light clove cigarettes. I am the devil. Kill me.
i went out to a sports bar last night to watch the mets not hit for **** and had to wade through a sea of fat, stupid, and drunken mets fans everytime i wanted to smoke.
Where do you stop? Alcohol? Trans Fats? Non Oganic fruits? Slowly . . the ole slippery slope is getting slipperier Rocket RIver
well...not really. Me drinking alcohol, eating trans fats or non organic fruits doesnt have any effect on those standing near me. me smoking affects those around me
u make no sense smoking is being banned in restaurants...and thats it. the sky is not falling. its healthier to not breathe in second hand smoke
