Government Overreach

Starting in September, Santa Monica is banning the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. I understand what they are trying to do: get everyone to use those hippy canvas bags so everyone feels good about the environment (and buys canvas bags). But they don't realize the blowback (or externality) of someone like me who has an effective system for using grocery store bags: in my small garbage cans. I re-use the plastic bags from the store as garbage bags, so instead of buy small plastic bags to line my small garbages, I just re-use the ones I get from the grocery store. But with Santa Monica's government overreach, now I'll need to buy a canvas bag, buy garbage bags, and end up with the same amount of waste. And they probably think they are creating jobs. Wrong. They are just transferring money from my pocket to the pockets of the garbage bag makers and the canvas bag makers.

Small, but telling example of how government's good intentions fuck things up.