Reason Magazine on why NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is its No. 1 Enemy of Freedom:
Here
is how New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained the importance of his
widely derided 16-ounce limit on servings of sugar-sweetened beverages
after a state judge overturned it last March: "We have a responsibility
as human beings to do something, to save each other, to save the lives
of ourselves, our families, our friends, and all of the rest of the
people that live on God's planet." Bloomberg literally thinks he is
saving the world one slightly smaller serving of soda at a time.
As
grandiose as that may seem, it is consistent with Bloomberg's view of
government. A few years ago in a speech at the United Nations, he
declared that "to halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable
diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the
default social option," which he described as "government’s highest
duty." On Bloomberg's to-do list for government, apparently, defending
us against our own unhealthy habits ranks above defending us against
foreign invaders or marauding criminals.
Public health is not the
only area where Bloomberg's authoritarian tendencies are apparent. There
is his enthusiasm for gun control, his illegal crackdown on pot
smokers, and his unflagging defense of the New York Police Department's
stop-and-frisk program, which portrays the Fourth Amendment as a
gratuitous barrier to effective policing. But his determination to halt
"epidemics" of risky behavior shows him at his most arrogantly
ambitious.
Bloomberg has pursued that goal not only by meddling
with people's drink orders but by banning trans fats, pressuring food
companies to reduce the salt content of their products, imposing heavy
cigarette taxes, severely restricting the locations where people are
allowed to smoke (even outdoors), mandating anti-smoking posters in
stores that sell cigarettes (a policy that, like his big beverage ban,
was rejected by the courts), and proposing a rule that would require
merchants to hide tobacco products from people who might want to buy
them.
The attitude driving Bloomberg’s crusade to "make healthy
solutions the default social option" is reflected in another comment he
made after his pint-sized pop prescription ran into legal trouble. "It
was not a setback for me," said the billionaire with degrees from Johns
Hopkins and Harvard. "In case you hadn't noticed, I watch my diet. This
is not for me." No, indeed. It is for those poor, benighted souls who
think it is acceptable to drink a 20-ounce soda.
45 ENEMIES OF FREEDOM
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