Thursday, December 10, 2015

Nanny State





Around here, there are a lot of rural folk who resent being part of a Nanny State, where the government puts restrictions on how much water you use, what kind of weapons you can own, how you have to maintain your car, when to license a pet, get a permit to build a barbecue, and other assorted rules and regulations which California is more or less famous for. San Luis Obispo County is, I think, even more restrictive than the rest of the state. We need a permit to install a new water heater or patio cover, and plastic bags are illegal to give out in the supermarkets.

While I agree that something like the water heater permit is ridiculous and definitely a money-grab from our local government, most Nanny Laws don't exist because of government greed -- they exist because of dumb people -- you are just the unfortunate, responsible and intelligent person who gets dragged along for the ride. 

Here's the gist: Nanny Laws are meant for the guy whose IQ is 40 points lower than you, who never graduated from high school, whose mother had a few too many margaritas in the first trimester of pregnancy with him and who sniffed waaaaay too much glue in junior high.

He'd happily hook up the water heater himself when he knows nothing about it, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. He doesn't neuter his animals because he's too lazy, and if he builds a barbecue which is next to the neighbor's fence and eventually catches their roof on fire, he'll just declare bankruptcy and move on before the neighbors can sue, since he's already three months behind the mortgage payment anyway and has a few bench warrants out for his arrest to boot.

In other words, there is someone out there who needs these laws to hold them in line and remind them to do the common sense thing. There is someone out there who would endanger you, themselves, and society at large if not reigned in by a, yes, obtrusive and meddling government. Sad but true.

Just remember...it's not for you. You don't need nannying, so you obviously resent the over-control. But it's for them. And they DO need it. By nannying them, Uncle Sam keeps you safer from rabid dogs, barbecue fires which spread to other structures than their owners', and cars that fall apart at 60 mph on the freeway and kill families in other cars.

Don't hate the Nanny Laws or the Nanny State. Hate that we have somehow managed to birth into our world a bunch of people who need such obtrusive laws in order to do the right thing.

8 comments:

  1. This is well written and kinda funny. Yes, lots of people around here just want to be left alone. We live in California, for better and for worse.

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    1. Thanks Denise! I'm one of those folks who loves California, and appreciate most of our laws. There are a few laws that drive me nuts, but as a native I'll say it's worth it, overall.

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  2. I agree. Still don't like a lot of them here in the city, but I know some people are dumb enough to know when not to do something. Thankful that the country house state government isn't half as restrictive, yet.

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    1. Yes, that is lucky. I find other states have less restrictions in general than we do, but every place seems to have some rules/laws in place that are just plain ridiculous!

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  3. Do we also call these people Trump voters? (Says the former die-hard Republican who was all but kicked out of the party.).
    We are an unsupervised state and just google Ohio and click the news tab and see how it works for us.

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  4. Lol you are too funny. Sometimes I wish we were more unsupervised but I think we'd have the same sorts of problems you do. Maybe the smart people need to form their own state where common sense regulations wouldn't be necessary! The 51st state -- MENSA!

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  5. Virginia has fewer of these laws than most states. We have been mostly a live-and-let-live state, with a few important protection laws here and there for just the people you describe. There have been big fights in the legislature about guns on school property (Argument: Rural kids who want to go hunting after school shouldn't have to go all the way home to get their rifle/shotgun.), passengers in the back of pick-up trucks (Argument: this may be all the transportation that a family has and can afford ... what else are they supposed to do?), and, my favorite, whether or not cats are property (Argument: cats are free-range spirits, and it's not possible to own them like one can own a dog. ????)

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  6. Those made me chuckle, interesting how ideas are so different depending on what part of the states you live in and whether you're in a rural or urban environment. And the cats....amazing that someone has time to draft legislation like that and see it through into the courts system! We see stuff like that all the time but people figure it's just kooky Californians feeling good about themselves lol.

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