Re: What Govt Act Bugs You Most?

Kevin Dempsey Peterson (kevin@cafe.berkeley.edu)
Mon, 3 Nov 1997 14:35:35 -0800 

On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Robin Hanson wrote:

> You probably wouldn't be libertarians if you weren't bugged by some
> things that governments do.  So I'd like to ask:  what thing that
> governments do bugs you the *most*?  That is, what thing that you
> see a goverment doing induces the strongest reaction in you of "they
> shouldn't be doing that"? 

Taxpayer funded propoganda.  The two main subjects right now are sex
and smoking.  The Statutory Rape issue seems valid - it's providing
information about a common crime.  The other ads about sex are a bunch
of bad actors whining about how they shouldn't have had sex because
now they have to take care of a kid.  One, it doesn't even mention
contraceptives, which would be a far more effective thing to push if
your goal is preventing kids from having kids; two, it promotes the
message that kids are a curse, which would most certainly cause people
to raise well adjusted children, and three, it's totally unrealistic -
what's the message they are pushing?  Don't have sex until you get
married in you late 20's?  The catch phrase from this commercial is "I
should have waited".  Why is tax money being used to promote an
something that churches can't even get their own members to follow?
It would be better spent subsidising the Trojan Man commercials (do
they have those on TV?  I wouldn't know - I only listen to the radio)

The other big one is this giant anti-smoker campaign, "funded by the
California Department of Health Services; paid for by the Tobacco Tax
Initiative".  I learned from these commercials that second hand smoke
is twenty times worse than smoking yourself (better start smoking -
you're safer).  The one they're playing now asks you to "support this
new law", apparently refering to something banning smoking in
restaurants and bars (they don't mention which law it is).  They have
a bunch of actresses whining about how they don't want to work in a
smokey room, and never realising that if they don't like it, all they
need to do is go work somewhere that doesn't allow smoking.  (Oh, but
it's so much easier to just pass a law prohibiting it).

Of course, there are a lot of things that are actually worse that
government does, but these are the ones that bother me the most, since
I hear them all the time.  (Incidentally, stations may be /required/
to play these.  I'm not sure, but I think there is a public service
anouncement clause in the license from the FCC)

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