Free Republic

There is no shortage of bad ideas coming out of Lansing. Senate Bill 1285 introduced by Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton, would require customers to pay a deposit on each newspaper they purchase equal to one-half the retail price of the newspaper. The proposed law would operate much like Michigan's bottle deposit law. Newspapers would be required to be returned to a redemption center, with each publisher in the state required to operate at least one such center. What possible benefit to the public could there be in requiring a newspaper deposit? There is certainly no environmental benefit since many Michigan...

A little less than 2,400 years ago Plato quoted Socrates in the Republic warning against trying to legislate every little detail of life. Socrates said, "(What) about the business of the marketplace …the ordinary dealings between man and man, …about insult and injury, of the commencement of (lawsuits)… But, oh heavens! Shall we condescend to legislate on any of these particulars?" What Socrates was saying was that legislation cannot take the place of commonsense or a society’s healthy customs. John Adams, our second President and a signer of the Declaration of Independence echoed Socrates’ thoughts when he said of our...