Via Instapundit, a refreshing admission from the nanny state side:
It’s rare when a politician is as honest about his strategy as the New York City councilman largely responsible for the plastic-bag fee about to hit New York City. For his candor, Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) ought to be considered a new American hero.
Here is progressive politics in 2016: “It works by irritating us into changing our behavior,” Lander said of the bag tax.
So they are at stage two of the spectrum of action for bending us to their will:
It's a familiar script. Our leftist betters identify something that people stupidly do. Then they attempt to educate us about that bad thing. When that doesn't reduce that bad thing enough, they agitate for laws that raise the cost of doing that bad thing. And then when that doesn't do the trick, they seek to ban that bad thing.
Funny enough, none of the things they like to do ever count as bad things.
Of course, when people refuse to actively do something "good" rather than just refusing to stop doing something "bad", you get a stage four of compelling people to do something that they don't want to do--like buying health insurance.
And then there is the fifth stage of wanting "reasonably enlightened" despots to control us--to stop doing "bad" things and to do "good" things--for our own good.
And there are always unintended consequences. Case in point on plastic bags: I haven't bought garbage bags in 15 years. I use those "wasteful" plastic bags for garbage bags. If banned, I'll have to buy plastic bags for garbage.
Face it, these asshats just like to boss people around.
