"Yikes! I Might Be...Militia!"
First, the environmentalists didn’t want us to cut down trees for use as shopping bags. As a fix, we were given the option of using recyclable plastic bags to carry groceries and other items home from the store. Likewise, we became accustomed to answering the question, “Paper or plastic?” Now, the California State Legislature is considering a 25-cent tax on plastic grocery bags. Huh?
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Californians recently polled oppose the proposed tax. According to a news release issued by plastic bag advocates yesterday, opposition is even higher in the coastal counties of Los Angeles and San Diego, where more than two out of every three respondents oppose the tax.
Why the opposition? It is estimated that the proposed tax could cost the average family about $400 per year.
Nuts!
1 response so far ↓
1 cb // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Plastic bags can be recycled, but it doesn’t pay to recycle plastic like it does to recycle aluminum (Penn & Teller brought up this important point in one of their show’s episodes). If the government deems it such an important issue, then taxing the offending recyclable material is backwards.
One sould pay people to recycle plastic, which government at some level no doubt already administers. Now you’ve made picking up litter a revenue stream for bums, hobos, kids, and small animals. That sounds like a win on multiple fronts: if the problem is mainly litter, then a program that gives incentive to remove litter makes sense. If, instead, the problem is the idea of people being convenienced by technology, then the tax makes sense.
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