Regulating Restaurants

There are myriad proposals out there to create onerous new regulations, but this one takes the cake:

:In New York City this summer, a law kicked in requiring chain restaurants — from Starbucks to Burger King — to display on menus and menu boards the caloric content of the food they serve. In five other cities and counties elsewhere, similar labeling laws will take effect in coming months.

If the regulators’ goal is to help people make healthier choices, these regulations will probably do just the opposite of what they intend. Collecting information on calories is expensive, and the cost of complying with these laws will be most easily borne by the big fast-food chains. Small restaurants with potentially healthier fare will face this huge obstacle to setting up business. So we could end up with a situation where people know exactly how many calories are in each hamburger at McDonald’s but don’t care because that’s the only place to eat out.

(Not that they care so much now. Everybody knows that fast food isn’t good for you, even if they don’t have the exact calorie count in front of them when they order. It sells anyway.)

Fortunately, this concept hasn’t caught on in Missouri. Let’s hope things stay that way.