Under a bill introduced by San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos, the city would charge alcohol wholesalers a fee -- 0.076-cents for every ounce of alcohol sold -- to defray the costs linked to alcohol consumption in the city."Big Alcohol".
If passed, it would be the nation's first local charge for the “harm” attributed to alcohol.
Supporters of the bill say there is a direct correlation between wholesale alcohol sales/ alcohol consumption and health care, human services, and public safety.
“San Francisco government agencies cannot continue to subsidize the alcohol industry,” said the Marin Institute, a group that “envisions communities free of the alcohol industry’s negative influence.”
"It's time for Big Alcohol, including wholesalers, to pay its fair share. A local alcohol charge-for-harm fee is long overdue," said Bruce Lee Livingston, executive director of Marin Institute.
Soon it will be "Big Cotton" and "Big Linen" for being "wrinkly, and requiring the use of steamers and irons, which use electricity - thereby depleting the resources of our poor feeble planet.
Or "Big Plastic" for being creating all that stuff that will not break down in landfills....
Or "Big Glass" for creating all those items that regularly break, and must be replaced over and over again...using precious resources both in their creation and disposal.
Or "Big Toilet Paper" for destroying all those trees just for a decadent culture's selfish convenience.
Or "Big Metal" for creating ugly, sharp things and the perfect material for making weapons.
Or "Big Food" for making so much nourishment for so many people that the precious, poor world is overcrowded.
I'm running out of outrage.
I begin to understand how people get nihilistic and fatalistic.
Is there really an option remaining? Is there really time left to save America short of...
WAR?
The Gunslinger
