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February 25, 2006

Virginia Keeps Smoking

From the Virginia Pilot:

A proposal to ban smoking in Virginia's restaurants and other public places has been snuffed out.

Frankly, I found it troubling that the ban was considered at all. The fact that it made it as far as it did is evidence that even in the Old Dominion, there are some who are trying to trample the rights of the individual to determine whether to allow the use of a legal substance on their privately owned commercial property. Like our commenter Goose in a previous post, some here in Virginia feel that if you offer your services to the public, it is suddenly acceptable - nay, a moral imperative - for the government to interfere with the parameters of the transaction.

Individuals cannot be trusted to engage in personal or financial intercourse without having a collectivist hold their hands.

"Why do you need a law to protect people when people can protect themselves by not going in" restaurants that allow smoking, said Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax.

Exactly. This is no different from my feelings on private schools, by the way - expressed in the comments section at Right on the Left Coast. This is not a matter of equal opportunities, it is a matter of equal outcomes. And we all know that line of thinking, don't we?

Wulf Posted by Wulf on February 25, 2006 at 01:52 PM

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Comments

The question that I would ask of your private property argument is: If your opinion, does private property make an employer exempt from the Occupational Safety and Health Act? Or in other words, why should restaurants and bars be exempt from occupational hazard controls which are mandatory for all other employers?

Posted by: superdestroyer at February 26, 2006 4:35 PM

There is a line of thought that suggests businesses will develop their own standards in a free market. No government fiat created the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."

Similarly, no governmental fiat can create goodwill for a business - and that is the aim of OSHA and other regulatory standards. Without the standards, businesses who didn't adhere to otherwise reasonable standards would be wiped out during the first law-suit. Remove the governmental legal protection offered to the owners of businesses and personal liability comes into play.

Posted by: doinkicarus at February 26, 2006 9:55 PM

SuperDestroyer, the argument to dissolve OSHA would have no legal legs, I am sure. But OSHA shouldn't be necessary for commerce to exist... after all, commerce did exist before OSHA. The employer obviously should be held liable for any unreasonable danger that the employee is exposed to unwillingly or unknowingly.

The real benefit workers have seen with OSHA is the "unknowingly" part. The average, uneducated day laborer would be exposed to tremendous health and safety issues without OSHA, and they would never know it - again, look at what conditions used to be, and indeed to some degree still exist today.

Personally, I do not have a problem with this service being provided by the government (this is why I am not accepted by "real" libertarians), but I am sure in a libertarian utopia it would be handled by a private company like UL or Good Housekeeping. In real terms, pragmatism must win the day. So pragmatically, OSHA should protect workers from unknown exposure to health risks. But nobody is forcing you to work in a smoke-filled environment, and those who choose to work in restaurants, bars, hotels, etc. where smoking is permitted, are well aware of the risks that they are taking. Since they are aware, it is not our place to stop them for their own good.

Posted by: Wulf [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 27, 2006 8:40 AM

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