Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald
Smoking bans are doperules how?
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Because they are rules which eliminate the exercise of discretion. A business owner is not allowed to decide that he can make more money by providing smoking and non-smoking areas within his restaurant. He must enforce the ban totally.
There's no reason that both smokers and non-smokers can't be accomodated in most places. We did it for years before the anti-smoking campaign finally succeeded. But of course, there were situations where a non-smoker's table was right next to the smoking area, so someone would have to make a reasoned decision about whether some smoker was violating a non-smoker's air space to the point where he should put out his cigarette.
Much easier to have a dope rule: "no smoking, anywhere."
There are other dope rules imposed by government. Take speeding laws, for instance. Technically, if you go one mile over the limit, you are in violation. The police have the ability to treat such violations strictly. In practice, they enforce them selectively, which is one of the dangers of having dope rules. I was on the highway this weekend, exceeding the limit by about 5 mph. So was a taxicab right in front of me. The cop passed me to pull the cab over. Cops are not dopes, so dope rules don't constrain them.