Welcome to Colofornia

As the old adage goes, garbage in, garbage out. Cast stupid votes, get stupid laws. When Coloradoans (aided by transplants from liberal hellholes like California) vote in big government, little dictators like the current Colorado legislature, we end up being treated like children and having our lives micromanaged by people who have no business making decisions for others.

In the latest example, Colorado Democrats (the garbage we voted in) are now using their power to issue dictatorial rules about what bags you can use at the grocery store (garbage policy). Julie Gonzales – a Denver Democrat who sponsored HB 1162 – said she is “hoping that they also make the culture-change decision.” Who’s “they?” You. She and her fellow little dictators are trying to force you to change your culture by passing laws on what kind of bags your can use at the grocery store.

The bill forces yet another onerous inefficiency on Colorado businesses, who will now be required to either cease using plastic bags entirely (in the case of large, multi-state stores) or collect a $.10 fee per bag they give to customers (for smaller businesses). This fee must be accounted for and remitted to cities or counties, which are permitted to levy even higher fees on their residents. These fees must be spent on more social engineering – either the cost of the bag fee program itself or so-called “waste diversion” programs.

To bribe businesses into complying, they are allowed to keep 40% of the bag fee revenue. Of course, poor folks who are willing to disclose to the store that they’re poor are exempt from the petty fee.

Of course, it won’t be the cost of the bags or the cost of having to rely on less convenient and effective ways of getting groceries home that affects citizens the most. It will be the cost on businesses of having to administer yet another intrusive government regulation – a cost that will be passed onto customers through higher prices or lower product value. Never mind the fact that most people who take their groceries home in plastic bags reuse those bags for trash liners or other needed uses at home. Now we will simply have to purchase larger and more “wasteful” plastic trash bags from the same stores, and may very well use more plastic than before.

Petty laws like this have nothing to do with stopping waste or protecting the environment. They are about an ever-increasing swarm of petty controls and regulations over the citizenry to beat us into servitude and compliance. It is death by a thousand cuts – subjugation by a thousand rules.

Cast stupid votes, get stupid government. Welcome to Colofornia.