Just Leash Us Up and Tell Us How to Live
17 December 2006
Editor, The Baltimore Sun
Dear Editor:
Today's letter from the American Lung Association's Stephen Peregoy reveals the contempt that members of the command-and-control crowd have for ordinary people. Justifying his opposition to letting "each bar and restaurant owner . . . decide whether to allow smoking," Mr. Peregoy rhetorically asks "Should each restaurant owner decide whether or not to refrigerate dairy products? Or whether rodents should be allowed to roam the kitchen?"
Here's someone who imagines that we ordinary people are too inept on our own to avoid filthy restaurants serving rotten food. Here's someone who supposes that the great bulk of us normal folks are ignoramuses who must be grabbed by our noses and led to salvation by the enlightened few represented by the likes of Mr. Peregoy.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Baltimore Sun
Dear Editor:
Today's letter from the American Lung Association's Stephen Peregoy reveals the contempt that members of the command-and-control crowd have for ordinary people. Justifying his opposition to letting "each bar and restaurant owner . . . decide whether to allow smoking," Mr. Peregoy rhetorically asks "Should each restaurant owner decide whether or not to refrigerate dairy products? Or whether rodents should be allowed to roam the kitchen?"
Here's someone who imagines that we ordinary people are too inept on our own to avoid filthy restaurants serving rotten food. Here's someone who supposes that the great bulk of us normal folks are ignoramuses who must be grabbed by our noses and led to salvation by the enlightened few represented by the likes of Mr. Peregoy.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Sunday August 26, 2007 at 7:32pm