Theft And Contempt - Los Angeles Bans Plastic Grocery Bags

The Los Angeles City Council voted 11-1 yesterday to ban the use of disposable plastic bags in stores and supermarkets.

“We’ve seen plastic bags clogging our gutters, polluting our rivers and piling up on our beaches,” Councilmember José Huizar said in a statement. “The time for the City of Los Angeles to take action to protect our environment is now. And every big city in the nation can follow our lead.”

The argument here is that these plastic bags are 'bad for the environment' because they take so long to decompose. The sort of foam-at-the-mouth Leftist environmental wack job - or politicians trolling for their votes - quote this as gospel, especially the politicians, because as you'll see, there's a nice little somethin' somethin' in it for them too.

The environmental argument is especially ridiculous, and so non-factual only a low information California Lefty would buy it. Plastic bags originally came into the picture when these same people began screaming about all of the trees being murdered to provide paper bags. And the time it takes them to decompose is a non-argument, because being plastic, they melt and are readily recyclable.

Rather than admit that this was a stupid campaign on their part and that they didn't know what they were talking about in the first place, they've gone the other way. So now paper bags are just fine.

Oh, and about those paper bags? The law also calls for - wait for it - a 10-cent charge per paper bag.

Here's the hidden enticement for the local politicos:

Nearly two billion single-use plastic bags and 400 million paper bags are distributed annually in Los Angeles, according Health the Bay, a non-profit environmental organization.

Ah....let's do some math.

The vast majority of working people will simply knuckle under and pay the dime per bag rather than deal with the inconvenience or risk E.coli or food poisoning from unwashed cloth bags. Let's be conservative and say that two billion paper bags get used, even though it will probably be more.

At 10 cents per bag, we're talking at least a windfall for the politicians of $200,000,000 per year in Los Angeles County, and probably more. They've found a way to legally put a sales tax on food items.And of course, the charge per bag can always be raised whenever the Council feels the need.

Call it yet another tax on the working class, who shop once per week and can't afford to have their groceries delivered, or don't have Hispanic housekeepers to do the chore for them.

The ban will take effect Jan. 1, 2014, for large stores that make more than $2 million a year and on July 2014 for smaller stores that carry limited groceries.

I do have one question for the sort of people who cheered this law on.

Whatever are you going to use now to put your doggie poop in after you scoop it up?