Light 'm up, 'cuz we're going down

The latest article posted over at the Mises Institute makes a point about recent smoking bans which I've been making for a long time. People yammer about all sorts of different aspects of the smoking debate, yet they somehow never manage to get around to discussing business owners. If I own a bar, it should be up to me and only me what is or isn't allowed inside of my own privately owned property. If people don't like my rules, they're free to drink somewhere else or open their own bar.

Rather than go on a long rant, though, I'm just going to excerpt liberally from the Mises article.

While I sympathize with [some whining woman who helped push the NJ smoke ban] and the other employees regarding their health problems, the flaw with her complaint is that she and the other casino employees were not forced to breathe in second-hand smoke. People voluntarily chose to work in those environments and they knew the benefits and the costs when they made the decision to work in the casinos (and if they did not, they could have quit their job soon after they started).

The only two parties that seem to get mentioned in many of these cases are the smokers and the non-smokers. The former argue that it is their right to smoke and the latter argue that it is their right to have clean air. Who seems to be forgotten are the business owners! This misuse of the word "public" is the main cause.

When I ask my friends or students if the government should have the right to tell me whether or not I can smoke a cigar in my own home, they unanimously tell me "No!" But isn't my home where other people come to eat, drink, talk, or watch television a "public" place? Yet, the same people who concede that my home is private property conveniently do not see the connection between my home and my restaurant (or other establishment). Why? Because they say my restaurant is a public place, established for the benefit of my patrons. I hate to disappoint them, but my business is for my benefit. Sure, I understand that I need many loyal customers who love to spend money at my establishment in order to have a thriving business. However, what people and legislators must realize is that my restaurant, bar, or casino is my private property just like my home is my private property.

[...]

The bottom line is that if you are a smoker, you do not have a right to smoke in my house nor in my place of business. If you want to smoke at a restaurant, bar, strip club, or casino, open your own. If you can't, stay home.

And if you are a nonsmoker, you do not have a right to a smoke-free environment in my house or in my place of business. If you want a smoke-free restaurant, bar, strip club, or casino, then open up your own darn place. If you can't, then stay home.

When people drop their arrogant and self-righteous attitude and realize that it is not a right to work for somebody else or that it is not a right to enter into somebody else's establishment, and when people learn the difference between the words "public" and "private," then maybe the incredible waste of time and taxpayer dollars that go toward smoking legislation will stop. Maybe then the government will stop interfering with property rights and start protecting them.

Not that this argument carries any weight with politicians. Unfortunately, it suffers from two fatal flaws: it is rational, which is known to cause allergic reactions in politicians, and it assumes that "property rights" are actually recognized and respected by the government.

posted by Beck on 04.21.06 at 11:45 AM





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