Ecology v. Economics Again...

[redneckgaijin]

... or, "How to Either Waste People's Time or Destroy a Major City's Commerce, Chapter DCLXVIII."

San Francisco bans plastic shopping bags.

This can go two ways:

(1) If paper bags aren't banned, San Francisco's shops will go over to them en masse... and paper bags are just as wasteful, ecologically speaking, as plastic, without the possible benefits of reusability. The whole thing would be a moderately expensive and annoying wash.

(2) If paper bags are banned- and I think they ARE already banned in San Fran- then merchants in San Francisco will have to ask that all shoppers bring their own canvas bags to shop with. Canvas is too costly for merchants to give out free. Since it's already been established by over a decade of trying that, even in America's most liberal city, the vast majority are unwilling to use canvas bags, this will lead to San Franciscans abandoning in-city shopping for stores in the many surrounding smaller cities which don't have this law. Result: the extreme crippling, if not outright destruction, of San Francisco's retail markets.

This is one of those ideas that only makes sense if you postulate that total enforcement of human behavior is possible. As such an idea, it makes PERFECT sense to those in power in California in general, never mind the Bay area specifically...

Comments

[jinwicked.livejournal.com]

I have some canvas bags I got for donating like $10-$15 to various eco charities over the years. I wish more people used them, so grocery baggers and cashiers wouldn't look at me like I'm a total nutjob when I say, "I don't need a bag, I have my own."

At it again...

[kyllein.livejournal.com]

There's something about two "San's" in California; one of them is SANta Monica, the other is SAN Francisco.
Anyone who wants to see what the so-called "Liberals" are really like can take a look at them.
Essentially, it's enforced Flower Power; peace and love at the end of a truncheon.
Senator Diane Feinstein was the Mayor of San Francisco for a time. The city has still to recover from that. Santa Monica got so bad that the people actually voted the City Council out of office; San Francisco hasn't yet developed that much gumption.
They have a willful City Council up there, Ruling rather than Governing, and are so stupid that they wonder why the average Tourist stay is down to 16 hours currently, fallen from two days just a decade ago.
They are a classic example of where an Oligarchy has turned Democracy into Dumbocracy. I know of two families that are leaving the place, for San Louis Obispo (two hours down the coast)simply because of idiotic laws like the Plastic Bag law.
San Francisco: the city of Optimism: "Someday these laws are going to work, I just know it!"

[lone-cat.livejournal.com]

If you RFC, you'll see this: "The new rules would, however, allow recyclable plastic bags". Granted, this raises the question of what percentage of recyclable plastic bags end up being recycled, so it could still end up being a wash.