I know, I know.  Government intrusion.  People should be informed consumers on their own.  Etc. etc.   It’s not business’s role to take care of people and Big Brother needs to get out of the way.

New York City was recently foiled in its attempt to force fast food restaurants to display calorie counts.  That’s a shame, and here’s why: in inner-city neighborhoods, in places where diabetes is overwhelmingly rampant (and expensive to the state), fast food is what many people eat many times a day for a variety of reasons: it’s all that’s in the neighborhood, people are working multiple jobs, there are cultural affinities for certain types of food.  Whatever reason you like: if you’ve ever lived or worked in the inner-city, you know there are not a lot of chances for fresh salad and an Atkins wrap.

So this whole insistence on free choice assumes a middle class privilege of movement and economic freedom that simply does not exist.  And that’s why we need these laws.