The South Los Angelos City Council is not satisfied with the culinary choices of the people of South Los Angelos. While consumers have been voting one way with their wallets, the City Council has voted to use government force to override their preferences.
How many fast food eateries does one area really need? The Los Angeles City Council thinks South Los Angeles and South East Los Angeles need new choices as these regions face an over-concentration of such restaurants.
“This is not an attempt to control people as to what they can put into their mouths. This is an attempt to diversify their food options,” said councilmember Jan Perry.
Perry’s new plan bans new so-called “stand alone” fast food restaurants opening within half a mile of existing restaurants.
This is an argument straight out of Orwell’s Ministry of Plenty. Government does not offer diversity; markets do. Compare the diversity you see in any private industry, such as automobiles or cell phones, with that in more heavily regulated sectors, such as education and mail delivery.
Are we really supposed to believe that, in exercising control over the availability of goods, they are not attempting to influence how those goods are consumed? Please, councilmember Perry, you’ll have to do better than that. Of course you are trying to control what people eat.
