When the Free Market Isn't Free

On the eve of New York's "bag ban," I thought I would write about what this means in the larger scheme of freedom and choice. In the 1990's, the question "paper or plastic?" denoted the struggle between the saving of trees by using thin film plastic bags and the ability to recycle paper bags. After the introduction of plastic bags, paper bags were still more popular and considered better by customers.

This changed over the years. Fewer local grocery stores and superstores further away meant that people had to cram more into a shopping cart and get it all into a car. While paper bags stood on their own, they could tear under stress and took up a lot of space. Plastic bags could form around each other. Plus, they had handles that allowed people to grab many bags at once, reducing trips.

The free market created almost universal adoption of the plastic grocery bag. The stores could buy them for less and store more per square foot. People could grab 4-5 bags with one hand. Holding a paper bag with one hand is almost impossible.

Last decade, there was a small move toward reusable bags. Stores sold these bags, but their shoddy construction and inconvenience kept the adoption level low. The entire "bring your own bag" campaign is driven by people who want to go against the choice of most people and the free market to impose a minority opinion. It is an element of fascism, suppressing freedom and creating a system that can only exist by the force of law and threat of punishment.

Nearly everyone takes home plastic bags from the store. However, years of environmental dogma will make most of them feel like they were supposed to do this all along, even when they never did. Many will decide you can't fight City Hall. I would say, vote Republican. They are slightly less bad than the Democrats and they never passed a bag ban when they had the majority.