Reply #: A Nanny State

[Taverner]

Yes, it is a mainly Republican term, but its not without reason.

Take smoking. I understand banning smoking inside. It makes sense, and 2nd hand smoke is a killer. It also ruins a perfectly good meal.

However, Los Gatos, CA, recently banned smoking inside and out. This means you can only smoke in your home or back yard. Completely unnecessary, and designed to piss people off.

Take the banning of flavored cigarettes - supposedly this was banned because it makes kids smoke. But the rate of youths smoking has been going down steadily, even during the time these were on the market. The health education campaign worked. Raising taxes worked (although you only get to pull that lever so many times.) All banning flavored cigarettes does is piss off smokers who smoke those kinds of cigarettes.

So the Nanny State is a term for policy where the government mandates behavioral change for no good reason, except to just do so.