Ignore That Elephant In The Middle Of The Room

I've been concerned about this for years:

Brooklyn-based columnist David Klion has drawn national attention with a recent tweet storm arguing that driving is immoral and automobiles should be banned.

Nanny-state proposals from Acela corridor opinion writers like this are easy to dismiss and, in Klion’s case, mock. Yet the real danger is that too many politicians in state capitals and city halls nationwide spend an inordinate amount of time pondering things to ban and, unlike busybody columnists, their bad ideas can be put into law, with negative consequences for individuals, families, and the economy in general.

The California legislature, more so than any other elected body in the country, is filled with lawmakers who live to manage other people’s lives and dictate seemingly innocuous personal decisions and behavior. That’s why California is one of only two states that has banned plastic shopping bags and imposes a 10-cent tax on paper bags (with the revenue collected going not to state coffers or environmental improvement projects, but to line the pockets of large corporations like Safeway and Ralph’s)...

Aside from the adverse effect that foam bans have on of employers, another reason Golden State politicians, at both the state and local levels, should not be spending their time considering and debating misguided foam prohibitions is because they have bigger fish to fry.

California has racked up approximately $1 trillion in state and municipal unfunded pension liabilities. While California politicians have plenty of ideas for new taxes and regulations, they have no plans to rectify these soul crushing unfunded pension liabilities, which taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for. Rather than spend time and scarce taxpayers resources coming up with new ways to make it harder to do business in the Golden State – like banning foam and making it illegal for restaurants to give out drinking straws – California officials need to spend their time on the real challenges facing the state.

A part-time legislature might help, but that only addresses the problem of too much government and too many idle government hands that just need to regulate or ban something.  The second problem, that of runaway unfunded pension liabilities, will only be dealt with as we head over the fiscal cliff.

And notice I said "dealt with", not "solved".