California’s Next Ban: Paper Receipts

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 11, 2019

[reaganaut1]

First they came for the plastic bags, then plastic straws. Now California progressives want to ban paper receipts. Like so many other liberal crusades, the fight against paper receipts is cronyism masquerading as green virtue.

California’s good liberals see a green villain behind every corner. If something doesn’t kill sea turtles then it will likely give you cancer. The state banned single-use plastic bags in 2016, which was followed last year by a prohibition on plastic straws in restaurants. Warnings are required on products that regulators deem even remotely carcinogenic, from potato chips to aspirin.

The latest scourge is paper receipts. According to state Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco, receipts generate 686 million pounds of waste and 12 billion pounds of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of one million cars on the road. They may also contain the chemical BPA, which could cause birth defects if ingested in high doses. Is eating receipts a new diet fad in California?

Mr. Ting this week proposed legislation requiring businesses to offer e-receipts as the default option or pay a fine of $25 per day. Many merchants are upgrading to mobile payment processing and checkout systems because millennials spurn cash and all things paper. But his bill would mandate that all businesses adopt such new hardware and software systems.

As it happens, the biggest beneficiary would likely be Square Inc., whose headquarters is in San Francisco and is run by CEO Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame.

[Openurmind]

There is something very important in what you shared here.:)

And it relates to what happens when society accepts “conveniences” blindly without considering the true cause and effect that will come about when it is imposed on everyone without choice.

“I have my cell phone but refuse to dump the landline. Where I live, it keeps me from being cut off during an extended power outage.”

There are a whole lot of factors “imposed” to be considered with your needs and concept about phones. Starting with the fact all carriers are doing everything they can to eliminate landlines and all related infrastructure, and we are allowing them to do it without complaint or even question.

Who cares that in a power outage they can save lives. I can’t even imagine how many lives pay phones have saved over the years just because they are always functional even in a power outage. Try to find a pay phone...

[maine-iac7]

Yep...

I’d like to see the stats on how many Seniors in my age group on limited S.S. can even AFFORD a cell phone - yes they have emergency-only clam shells - but just maybe, sometimes, they’d like to call family and friends! Loneliness and the feeling of isolation can be deadly.

I wouldn’t have a cell if I had to pay for it - my son provides it for me so if I fall inside/down cellar/on my walks, etc - I have a lifeline.

But the day they take down our landlines will tantamount pulling the plug on seniors. Of course, that’s the mindset these days. We’re taking up precious oxygen needed to save the planet. (They haven’t realized that, if they’re lucky enough to live long, they will be subject to the laws they imposed upon us.)

[Openurmind]

“They haven’t realized that, if they’re lucky enough to live long, they will be subject to the laws they imposed upon us.”

Exactly. They don’t look far enough down the road when they accept certain things as cool and handy. Like this digital receipt mandate concept. Next all digital currency, next... What do you do when it turns out to not be so cool? Too late, we will be stuck with it like it or not.

Example, we won’t see it, but there will someday not too far off where only driverless cars are legal. They will be mandated without choice.

Next... a subscription to a third party for handling the data service needed for your driverless car to even start and find it’s way. Then permission or restriction to travel where or when you like with a punch of a button or being hacked.

Sounds crazy right? Who would have ever thought at the time society would ever allow elimination of all landlines and phone booth communications? But here we are.

Some roads are just best left untraveled period, and I wish more like you would see this... We must be careful what we ask for... We just might get it. :)