Big Brother or Big Mother?
Used under a Creative Commons License from Jason Gulledge's Flickr collection
Let’s hear it for Dave Ziemer’s discussion of the ridiculously over-protective nature of our state government (although this applies with equal force to federal, municipal, and every other layer). Most people have no idea of just how much government intertwines itself in everything we do every day, yet in the vast majority of instances, provides no discernible added value. Have a look at what our state government protected Dave Ziemer (and all of us) from:
Wis. Admin. Code ATCP 91.03(1)(a) says all fresh fruits and vegetables shall be sold at retail only by weight, subject to a few exceptions.
Subsection (1)(b) provides exceptions for: “artichokes, avocadoes, cantaloupes, cauliflower, celery, corn on the cob, coconuts, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, grapefruit, head lettuce, kiwanos, kiwi fruit, lemons, limes, loquats, mangoes, melons (whole), nectarines, oranges, papayas, peppers, persimmons, pineapples, pomegranates, prickly pear, pumpkins, quince, squash, star fruit, tangerines and ugli fruit.”
But bananas, as you can see, are not on the list. There are other apparently arbitrary distinctions: lettuce can be bought by the head, but not cabbage; nectarines can be sold per piece, but not apricots.
Before anyone goes and calls the cops on their local cafe, let me explain something. I spoke with a very helpful young woman at the DATCP, who told me that legislation is pending to permit the sale of bananas, and some other fruits and vegetables, by the piece as well as by the pound. She expects the legislation to be in place by the first of the year, and in the interim, the law is not being enforced with respect to the affected fruits.
Most interesting to me is the too-typical idea that, instead of removing or deleting legislation that doesn’t make sense or is unneeded, another regulation should be passed to address the issue caused by the first regulation.
