San Fransisco bans Plastic bags from Grocery stores

[tomdemaine]

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Let's go with another example. Outlaw internal combustion engine-powered cars. Only fuel cell or battery cars are allowed. It doesn't matter that they're more expensive, because the customer will pay for it! Poof, problem solved.

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Is there some right to combustion engine powered cars that I'm not aware of? For the overwhelming majority of human history that we got along without them, were people being deprived in some way? Of course not. The right is to voluntary transactions, except you conveniently ignore that these voluntary transactions might be opposed by people not making the transactions. So who cares, right? Well, these voluntary transactions (just like many, many others) affect people beyond merely those who make them.

I think you'd agree that you have no right to raise a skunk farm next door to me if it makes my land smell like [censored]. You have no right to play music loudly at 4 am just because it's in your apartment and not mine. So what gives you the right to pollute the environment that everyone else has to live in? Simply the fact that, guess what, the majority of people (and those who rule people) have decided that they are ok having cars and with others having cars.

Some people believe that driving cars isn't alright, and that this, along with other forms of pollution, should all be made illegal. Tyranny of the majority... or is it ok because you drive a car (which I do as well, not trying to say that cars should be outlawed)?

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Let these people file a claim in a private court and present their evidence that my use of a car (I don't drive by the way this is hypothetical) harms them. If a reputable private court finds that it does to the extent that damages must be awarded and I value interacting with society above cutting and running I'll stop using my car or pay damages determined by the court.