And So to Bed

Matt Yglesias:

Yum Brands combo restaurants aren’t especially rare or problematic in my view, but I was interested to learn about the general existence of this restriction. The rule (which you can look up here) is a generalized restriction on takeout and delivery operations, whether chain or otherwise, but it also allows for the granting of a “special exception” to especially favored business operations.

At any rate, I can see why people might favor a rule like this. But something that comes to mind naturally is to wonder how many people who live in the area actually know that any such rule exists? My guess is “not many,” which is often the case with this sort of thing, which I think is a problem. Democracy is great, rule by a handful of busybodies who are doing all kinds of things most people never hear about is not so great. 

One might just as easily wonder if people who move into an area without Yum Brand combo restaurants are aware that the area into which they are moving doesn't have any Yum Brand combo restaurants. And one might profitably wonder if they moved there because the area didn't have any Yum Brand combo restaurants, or hog farms for that matter, and after finding some evidence one way or another, one could profitably comment on soundness of the regulations that helped created the neighborhood into which they moved. And one might then extra profitably wonder if calling city planners who seek to create the kind of neighborhoods that the people move into  because they like them busybodies is evidence of a kind of knee-jerk, Neoliberal, Reaganite disdain for sensible rules and regulations. Matt Yglesias the Last Liberal Lion.

I really do wonder at what point he is just going to come out and say that "[t]he nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"