Seattle to Play Trash Police – City Council Votes Unanimously to Fine Residents and Businesses for Wasting Food

Sometimes I look at the state of this country and it’s impossible to understand how so few could possess a libertarian spirit. Right there in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that we are created equal. So why are so many people so willing to let the guys with the guns tell them how to live their lives? Not just in the moment, mind you, but at the voting booth!

The latest travesty against personal freedom comes from Seattle, where the City Council has decided that too much food is being thrown away. Under their new regulations, trash collectors will have the authority to inspect the garbage cans they pick up for any food and compostable materials. If said material makes up more that 10% of the trash, guess what? That’s right, you get a fine. Granted, the fine is only $1, but it’s $50 for businesses and apartment complexes.

You can read that paragraph over and over again; it’s never going to make sense. Nothing these liberals do makes any sense any more. They cite tenuous statistics, unclear science, and “feelings,” and use some combination of the three to enact legislation that tells us how to act, how to speak, and how to pay for the privilege. Don’t these people have that little voice inside that says, “Hey, maybe it’s no one else’s business what I do!”?

Few libertarians advocate doing away with laws altogether. But there’s a difference between a law that says you can’t beat someone to death with a hammer and a law that says you have to wear your seat belt. There’s a difference between laws that prevent the sale of drugs to children and those that prevent the sale of soft drinks to adults. And there’s certainly a difference between laws aimed to protect people and laws meant to fill the pockets of legislators. And quite honestly, the time has come to do away with laws of the latter persuasion.

I have a glimmer of hope that Seattle’s residents will revolt when they get their first tickets. Can you imagine the outrage you would feel if you went to collect your garbage bins from the curb and there was a note attached telling you to expect a $1 fine on your next bill? Somehow, the trivial amount of the fine makes it worse. It’s like Seattle’s government is sending grown adults into the corner for a time-out.

In the end, it’s far from the worst example of government intrusion. Still, these things tend to build on one another. One day Seattle is doing it, then San Francisco, then New York. Once laws like this go through with relatively little controversy, people like Michael Bloomberg suddenly think they’ll get away with banning 2-liter sodas. And when that happens, lawmakers of course believe they can get away with banning guns. It never ends.

I’m all for fining criminals and locking them up, but there comes a point when you have to ask: are some of these “crimes” worth a fine? Are they worth locking a human being in a cage? At what point do we have to erase “land of the free” from our national anthem?

If the left has their way, it won’t be long.