When junk food is outlawed, only outlaws will have Twinkies.
What's the new pot heroine cocaine crack ?
Burger King. (Perhaps this explains the weird dude in their commercials.)
NPR ran a story by Jennifer Obakhume on Morning Edition today. Obakhume is a senior at Inglewood High School in Los Angeles.
The school has stopped serving fast food, and took out all but one soda machine. Obakhume says that school officials "couldn't have planned for what happened next - a black market for junk food."
She describes the lines at the soda machine reminiscent of Soviet-era bread shortages, the network of cellular calls placing clandestine pizza orders, and students with more gastrointestinal freedom literally "throwing fast food over campus gates to friends."
Evidently Inglewood High School has neither a history nor an economics teacher, because they could have predicted exactly what would have happened. The free market simply asserted its power in the form of a black market when commerce was overly restricted. It's another reason why sin taxes are such a fraud. At the point where consumers are unduly burdened going through legitimate supply channels, instead of stopping consumption they move outside of legitimate channels. (Which has the effect of making "sin" a crime -- another subject altogether.)
How many times does this issue need to be revisited?
Does anyone think that Prohibition was not an abysmal failure? What about the "War on Drugs"?
Need a contemporary example? New York increased cigarette taxes to absurd levels, and "Black Market Cigarette Sales are Booming" in the Big Apple
This audio report is extremely well written and details things like students buying bulk candy and chips, smuggling them in to school, and selling them in the hallway behind the backs of teachers.
Inglewood isn't teaching students to eat better, it's teaching them that black markets are lucrative for those willing to take the risk.
Why is this not a gateway learning experience to drug dealing? When presented with opportunities to sell drugs later, won't students remember their profitable fast food days? This is the worst way to teach kids about the profit motive in black markets, because the consequences of dealing in this particular market are so inconsequential compared to "real world".
Burger King. (Perhaps this explains the weird dude in their commercials.)
NPR ran a story by Jennifer Obakhume on Morning Edition today. Obakhume is a senior at Inglewood High School in Los Angeles.
The school has stopped serving fast food, and took out all but one soda machine. Obakhume says that school officials "couldn't have planned for what happened next - a black market for junk food."
She describes the lines at the soda machine reminiscent of Soviet-era bread shortages, the network of cellular calls placing clandestine pizza orders, and students with more gastrointestinal freedom literally "throwing fast food over campus gates to friends."
Evidently Inglewood High School has neither a history nor an economics teacher, because they could have predicted exactly what would have happened. The free market simply asserted its power in the form of a black market when commerce was overly restricted. It's another reason why sin taxes are such a fraud. At the point where consumers are unduly burdened going through legitimate supply channels, instead of stopping consumption they move outside of legitimate channels. (Which has the effect of making "sin" a crime -- another subject altogether.)
How many times does this issue need to be revisited?
Does anyone think that Prohibition was not an abysmal failure? What about the "War on Drugs"?
Need a contemporary example? New York increased cigarette taxes to absurd levels, and "Black Market Cigarette Sales are Booming" in the Big Apple
This audio report is extremely well written and details things like students buying bulk candy and chips, smuggling them in to school, and selling them in the hallway behind the backs of teachers.
Inglewood isn't teaching students to eat better, it's teaching them that black markets are lucrative for those willing to take the risk.
Why is this not a gateway learning experience to drug dealing? When presented with opportunities to sell drugs later, won't students remember their profitable fast food days? This is the worst way to teach kids about the profit motive in black markets, because the consequences of dealing in this particular market are so inconsequential compared to "real world".
posted by Rob at 6:38 AM
3 Comments:
Ha...good for those students!
I wonder if this school is one of those which has eliminated funding for Phys Ed?
Much easier to just ban twinkies and pat yourself on the back then actually, you know, provide classes emphasizing fitness.
When presented with opportunities to sell drugs later, won't students remember their profitable fast food days?
This is a high school. If they're not already involved in dealing controlled substances, I imagine they're not likely to do so later.
If they're not already involved in dealing controlled substances
Ah, but they are already dealing in controlled substances.
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