Commissioner would jail car dealers for Sunday sales
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JULY 10, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Commissioner would jail car dealers for Sunday sales
Hare-brained Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny's last political triumph came when she attempted to block Wal-Mart from opening larger stores in the Valley, a stillborn initiative undertaken at the behest of labor unions upset with that firm's non-union status. Now, apparently at the behest of some of our local Las Vegas auto dealers, she proposes her latest brilliant initiative, a county ordinance instituting a fine of up to $1,000 or six months in jail for any licensed auto dealer who -- ready? -- sells a car on Sunday.
Really.
At least it's good see Ms. Kenny's willingness to use the powers of government to limit our freedoms isn't limited to cases in which her union supporters ask for a favor. Like the most popular girl in high school, apparently she'll do it for anyone.
Though they've mostly evaporated in recent decades, Eastern states used to labor under many such commercial restrictions -- popularly known as "blue laws." Founded in earlier centuries, when little distinction was drawn between the civil authorities and those responsible for the salvation of men's souls, it was not unusual for colonies like Connecticut and Massachusetts to ban Sunday commerce -- and drinking and dancing on the sabbath, for that matter. Church attendance was mandatory, taverns had to close at a sensible hour, and to this day many such states bar the sale of carry-out liquor after 8 p.m.
All for the parishioners' own good, you understand.
Would it be "fair" to an observant Christian mom-and-pop company to allow their competitors to capture market share while their faith requires them to sit idle on the sabbath? Of course not.
Problem is, this starts to get complicated in a country which supposedly bans any state "establishment of religion." Is it "fair" to allow an observant Jewish car dealer to lose sales to his competitors on Saturday -- his sabbath? Guess we'd better ban car sales on Saturday, too. But then what about the observant Moslem dealer? If he opts to close for the month-long holiday of Ramadan, is it "fair" to allow his competitors to continue making daytime sales during that month?
Heck, think of the stress on a marriage caused when striving mom-and-pop casinos with a dozen video poker machines are driven to remain open 24 hours a day, just to keep up with the big megaresort across the street. To allow these people some sleep and quality family time, wouldn't it be "fairer" for the County Commission to pass an ordinance requiring all those Strip casinos to herd their customers out the door and lock up from, say 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night? Does anyone need to gamble 24 hours per day? And how else do we expect these exhausted tourists to rise early enough for morning worship?
In the end, this has nothing to do with religion, of course -- though one does wonder why Ms. Kenny didn't choose Wednesday, or Thursday. This is simply a new form of protectionism, blocking innovative competitors from improving the choices of all consumers by offering them more convenience ... with or without the permission of the "powers that be."
Not so long ago, Americans could buy their cars in any color -- so long as it was black. So sayeth Henry Ford, but he changed his mind in a big enough hurry when Chevrolet started offering runabouts in all the hues of the rainbow. Should Mr. Ford have used his political muscle to have Congress ban those colorful coupes?
Within living memory of many, the only kind of telephone you could have at home was a 20-pound Bakelite clunker designed by Ma Bell to stand up for a Force 10 earthquake, and you couldn't even buy that -- you had to rent it. Congress had granted Ma Bell a monopoly, and so sayeth Ma Bell.
(Protest your long-distance rates? What were you going to do, switch your account to some "competitor"? Hee-haw!)
Surely IBM would have favored a law banning "flimsy, unreliable" laptop computers, just as Mr. Edison tried for years to talk people out of that "dangerous" alternating current -- should Congress have banned Mr. Westinghouse's innovation, too?
Of all the tourist destinations in the world, Las Vegas is probably the best known as a "24-hour town." Obviously, any private business here can lock the door at night if the proprietors so choose -- or on Sundays, for that matter.
It's just supposed to be their own free choice ... while entrepreneurs who want to open the first Sunday rifle range, the first 24-hour carwash, or the first midnight golf course (now that would take glow-in-the-dark balls), are welcome to try it and see how they fare.
That used to be the American -- and especially the Nevada -- way.
But then we elected Erin Kenny.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
Previous Posts:
Honoring the Las Vegas Strip
Drug war hypocrites kill a troublesome author
Learning to nod in unison
Jews, come out
National study shows 'class-size reduction' does no good
IRS fine at asking questions, but not answering them
Trouble on the left
Fines for political speech
Oh, did we cite you under the health regulations?
'There Oughtta Be A Law,' Chapter 417
