No escaping the Nanny State

I thought, until recently, that California would be a good place to escape to, when the 21st Century Dark Ages sweep over the rest of America, despite the frequent comment that California leads and the rest of the USA follows, in trends, economy, growth and so on.

Wrong, I was. California is officially a Nanny State. First the ban on trans-fats in restaurants and retail foods, now a ban on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Ban No. 1 courtesy of Gov. Arnie and the Legislature, Ban No. 2 courtesy of the City Council.

Which brings me to this clipping, faded and tattered, on my cork board:

“I sometimes feel that the most conspicuous attribute of liberalism* that distinguishes it as much from conservatism as from socialism is the view that moral beliefs concerning matters of conduct which do not directly interfere with the protected sphere of other persons do not justify coercion.”

— From “Why I Am Not a Conservative,” written in 1960 by Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, a leading expositor of the many merits of free markets and of the dangers of socialism and winner of the Medal of Freedom (presented by President George Bush).

* “Liberalism” in the 19th-century, European sense: assigning highest value to individual freedom.


The free market profits from trans-fats and fast-food restaurants; Nanny states feel the urge to protect people from their own stupidity. Not government’s job, though.

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