Next up: butter

The craptastic city of New York has just voted to ban trans fats in restaurants. Just so we're clear, this is the government telling you what you can and cannot eat when you go out. If our government has this authority, what authority do they not have?

Here ends the short and slightly more eloquent post, below is economics.

Why do people think they should be deciding what other people can eat? The only marginally rational explanation I've heard is that what one person eats affects everyone, since unhealthy choices presumably drive up health care costs. Set aside for the moment that this is true for absolutely every decision you make, and therefore this argument justifies government control over everything you do - eating, working, having sex, raising a family. Even if it affects everyone, it affects the person making the decision far far more. After all, if eating unhealthily is going to cause a person to die, that hurts them most of all. If even they decide the costs are worth it, aren't they in a good position to know? (I don't believe there are large externalities in this circumstance, which would be the exception.) So why shouldn't the choice belong to each individual person?

The answer I think, is that some people believe that most other people are stupid. That's fine, but have they ever thought that maybe somewhere there exists a group of people that thinks they are the stupid ones? What will they say when that group tells them to do something they don't want to do?