I’m to the left of the political scale, in case you hadn’t guessed, but I do definitely get peeved at the left’s overreaching, too.
While I don’t know whether the legislator below (Reed, proposing the anti-cell phone law) is a Democrat, the fact that his law imposes additional regulations on private businesses seems to indicate that he may be.
Although I think more gov’t regulation is needed in some areas (such as, ahem, reigning in corporate malfeasance), I don’t think the gov’t should play a role in dictating to companies how their customers should interact (barring safety concerns).
In other words, while it’d have been one thing for Reed to ban cell phone yakking in gov’t owned facilities (e.g., libraries, hospitals, etc.), it’s another thing entirely to tell private companies (restaurants, movie theaters, erc.) what their environment should be like.
Why not leave this up to the free market? If people really are so peeved about inconsiderate cell phone usage while they’re watching the latest movie, have them complain to the theatre’s management, who could then (I’m assuming) pass a rule prohibiting the non-emergency use of cell phones in their theatre.
Perhaps it could be a positive differentiator; “AMC — Great movies, no cell phone chatter!” You laugh, but if you could pay the same price to see the same movie at either theatre within a 5 block radius, wouldn’t YOU choose the one that bans cell phone yakking inside? 🙂
Come to think of it, that might be a great bonus for restaurants, too. “Enjoy listening to live music… not cell phone ringers.” Or my favorite, “Patrons subject to $50 surcharge for cell-phone usage, which will be discreetly added to the bill.”
What do you think? 🙂
What do you think?