I’ll start by pointing out that the title of this blog is copied from John Hinderaker’s article at powerlineblog.com.
And the reason I am using it is because it so accurately describes the idea Democrats in New York have proposed for the state’s supermarkets; namely, that they give a 10% discount for people who use automatic checkouts.
Let’s think about this – not that it will require much thinking.
The first thing to think about is that supermarkets operate on extremely low profit margins – usually in the 2 – 3% range. This means that, if this idiocy were to be enacted into law, every use of the automatic checkout would lose money for the supermarket.
So what do you figure supermarkets will do? They will either remove the automatic checkouts or raise prices to compensate for the 10% discount. Which of those two is the good one?
Do these legislators have any idea of how dumb this comes across? Or do they even care, given that so many of our wonderful “neutral” media will probably not advise the general public of this fact?
I predict that if the 10% bill actually goes to a vote in the state assembly, the Republican minority will almost certainly vote against it. But Democrats will mostly vote in favor – maybe even enough of them to pass it through to the state senate. And much of our media will portray this as Democrats trying to save consumers money and Republicans being against it; the exact opposite of what such legislation would accomplish.
You want dumb – not to mention dishonest? There it is, in all its glory.
