A Growing Concern...

It sounds simple enough. Senate Bill 510 is called the "Food Safety Modernization Act". I think somebody decided we needed a new law because of some bad eggs that made the rounds this year. People that like a whole lot of government claim that it will protect us from bad eggs. People that don't like quite as much government point out that it will give the the government more power to regulate roadside vegetable stands and farmer markets.

In true government form, the Senate passed it the other day, before discovering that it should have originated in the House of Representatives. So now the House has to pass it, and send it back to the Senate to pass it again. And then, according to some people anyway, the states will have to agree to enforce it.

It's a shaky law that's getting off to a shaky start. But we know from experience it will probably somehow survive, and sometime in the future we'll start to notice the bills effects.

A few years ago, Harry Browne wrote some thing he called "The 7 principles of government".

Here's principle #4:

"4. Every government program will be more expensive and more expansive than anything you had in mind when you proposed it. It will be applied in all sorts of ways you never dreamed of."

Regardless of how or when the Food Safety Modernization Act is adopted, and regardless of its good intentions, and regardless of its effect roadside vegetable stands and farmer markets, we know it's not going to turn out like anything the "limited government" crowd would want, or even imagine.