According to the Associated Press Governor Schwarzenegger has signed into law legislation which bans restaurants from using Trans Fats in their food. It has already been a change in direction which most large restaurant chains have been moving. However, it seems that the legislators in California have decided that they will decide what is best for the populace. It is apparent that we must apply the slippery slope argument in this case because it does indeed seem to be relevant.
We have seen over a period of years where the state of California has been dictating what kinds of eating habits are deemed good and passing laws against those that are not. We have seen that with the smoking bans, the soda and snacks that can be given to children in school, and now the food that the rest of the public is allowed to eat. Simply put, this is not freedom, but a version of 1984 that even Orwell could not conceive of. As a matter of fact, when it came to a smoking ban the state of California did not outright make smoking unlawful, but instead opted to assign a tax to it. This tax was supposedly to help pay for health care. Apparently, the money never made it to the medical facilities because in California we have seen hospitals close down.
Nevertheless, the pessimist in me must believe that this is another money grab and some special interests are behind the state government’s actions. In this case the law only affects restaurants and not following the law will result in fines. However, this law does not include processed foods that sit on store shelves. It seems a bit hypocritical to ban one source of what the state believes to be a dangerous substance, but not all sources. This is especially true when you consider that processed foods are the leading source of Trans Fats because it extends shelf life.
I do not like the idea of the state dictating to me what I may eat and what I may not. It is simply foolishness to try and dictate the eating habits of individuals as well as their personal habits. What can we expect to be next? We have already had one legislator that tried to outlaw soda. Is this what we will have to look forward to? A world where everything we do and ingest is dictated by the mandates of the state?
Sometimes the government goes too far and with all of the troubles in the world dictating what people may or may not eat seems as though it should be at the bottom of the list. Indeed, the California legislature as well as the Governor have gone too far and passed a bill that affects all Californians without giving them a say in the matter.
Link
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZzww1KirHpqI0Hw-LMfUDQuln_wD9256DCGB