Opinion

California is leading the nanny-state trend

Sandra Fabry Freelance Writer
Font Size:

California nanny-staters are at it again. Sometime later this month, the Los Angeles City Council is expected to pass a ban on plastic carryout bags. Not surprisingly, San Francisco was the first U.S. city to impose a plastic bag ban and California accounts for almost two-thirds of the 74 plastic-related bans in the U.S.

The merits of the bans are, at best, questionable. Recent studies have shown that the unintended consequences of the bans often outweigh their benefits. For instance, an audit found that bag litter has accounted for a higher percentage of San Francisco’s litter in the years since the city banned plastic bags than it did in the years before. But that won’t stop Los Angeles from imposing a similar prohibition, just as it didn’t stop Watsonville from becoming the first city in California’s Santa Cruz County to ban single-use plastic bags. After all, it is about saving the planet.

In California, it is always about saving the planet. Or saving the children. Or saving the animals. Or saving ________. You get the picture.

That’s why California is constantly banning things. Just this week, the Corona City Council approved a ban on clothing donation drop-off boxes because they “were becoming an eyesore.” California’s chefs are currently rallying against the state’s soon-to-take-effect foie gras ban. Children in Santa Clara County will no longer get a toy with their restaurant meals due to a ban, while weekend warriors in Glendale may no longer use synthetic turf in their front yards. If you enjoy an occasional caffeinated beer, shark fin soup or “Kosher for Passover” Coca-Cola, you are now out of luck in California, as statewide bans have taken effect this year. California also recently became the first state to ban indoor tanning for minors, even with parental permission. A State Senate-passed bill to ban foam takeout containers did not pass the State Assembly last year, but the assault on Styrofoam, which makes serving containers inexpensive and reusable, is far from over. While the state-wide Senate measure is still eligible to be voted upon this year, city councils in San Jose and Hermosa Beach are proceeding with their own local bans.

As with the plastic bag bans, many of these measures, while undoubtedly well-intentioned on some level, are fraught with problems and unintended consequences.

The indoor tanning prohibition for minors, for example, gives California the dubious distinction of being the first state in which “a 12-year-old girl can decide to get an abortion without informing her parents, but a 17-year-old can’t decide whether or not to get an indoor tan, even with their parents’ permission,” as one commenter on the New York Times blog observed.

Apart from being unwarranted social engineering tools preventing responsible citizens from making consumption decisions for themselves (or precluding parents from parenting), bans like these also ignore the 800-pound gorilla: the state’s dire fiscal straits, to which regulatory implementation costs and unintended consequences of such measures only add.

Businesses as well as residents are fleeing the state in droves because of its dismal tax and regulatory climate. According to the latest “Rich States, Poor States” study by Stephen Moore, Arthur B. Laffer, and Jonathan Williams, more than 1.5 million people have left the (really-not-so) Golden State since 2001, accounting for the second-highest outmigration ratio in the nation.

However, it is not just people and investment that migrate from California to the other states — the bans do as well. In the mid-1990s, California was the first state to enact strict indoor workspace and bar and restaurant smoking bans, which are now the norm in many states. San Francisco’s plastic bag ban is another case in point. Vermont just implemented a strict indoor tanning prohibition for minors that is modeled after California’s, while at least 17 other states are considering similar measures this year.

It looks like the old saying “as California goes, so goes the nation” still holds true — so kick back and enjoy your caffeinated beer on your synthetic front lawn while you can, as more nanny-state bans will likely sprout up in your state soon.

Sandra Fabry is a freelance writer and public policy expert. Focusing on state and federal spending, accountability, and regulatory issues, she previously served as the executive director of the Center for Fiscal Accountability, which has recently been rebranded as the Cost of Government Center at Americans for Tax Reform.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel