Editor,
Like many people in this country, Sharon Bailey has things fundamentally wrong when she asserts that the "right" way to resolve the public smoking issue is to let business owners decide because we have a "free-market system" and "that's the way things work."
Please, fellow readers, do not buy into this nonsense. We do not have a free-market "system" when it comes to the public welfare, and that's not the way things work in this country. We have a democracy, and the "way things work" is that our elected representatives, not business owners, make decisions concerning the public welfare (the Clean Air Act is a prime example.)
In fact, the people of this country, either directly or through their elected representatives, can pass whatever laws they wish, subject only to the dictates of the U.S. Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution which requires us to submit to a "free-market" system, or that gives business the "right" to stay in business even if their operations harm other people. Rather, under our constitutional system, bar and restaurant owners who don't like the laws we pass can just as readily 'choose' to go out of business as non-smokers can 'choose' not to patronize business that allow smoking. That's the way things work.
Oh, and by the way -- can I please buy the first "license to steal" (i.e., liquor license) that becomes available if the ban becomes law? I'm sure the market will be absolutely flooded with them.
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David Vaughan
UNM graduate student
