Oh, those absolutely horrid capitalists – finding a void in the marketplace and supplying goods and services that buyers value! Heaven help us – the voluntary attribute is working!
Er, that would be working AGAINST the Government – no wonder the Principal has this to say:
School officials want the city to pass an ordinance banning ice cream trucks from parking near schools, similar to a San Francisco law that makes mobile catering vehicles stay 1,500 feet away from school grounds.
Novato school district employees say they work to make sure students get healthful lunches, and state laws passed in 2005 ban the sale of junk food and soda pop on campus.
School officials feel the ice cream trucks undermine their efforts by selling candy, ice cream, chips, soda and other such verboten goodies.
“The guys that drive these trucks, they’re nice guys, and I know they’re trying to make a living. But they’re doing it at the expense of the kids,” said Novato High School Principal Rey Mayoral.
No, they are doing it at the expense of your budget, Principal Mayoral! Make no mistake, the school cafeteria IS a profit center. All one has to do is to read the rules, see who they are biased for and against, and watch the money flow.
- Goverment made the rules ("ban the sale of junk food and soda pop on campus.") to make it harder for outsiders to compete (funny how that works – distorting the marketplace). The marketplace (the trucks) just operated by your rules – and are BEATING you even after you rigged the game.
- Government mandates what can be sold and what can be eaten in its marketplace. Now, students are not citizens, and a different set of rules does apply. But one cannot change the basic rules of economics – one can either make the playing field as level as possible – or as tilted as needed. But if what you are selling is not what the marketplace wants, you lose –The marketplace (the trucks) just offered what that particular marketplace wants – and are BEATING you because you think you can mandate ("healthful lunches") what the marketplace wants.
Notice the call to "a higher moral authority of the school" – and the implicit mandate of "you will do as we say and eat your arugula and salads".
In no way are the food trucks doing it "at the expense" of the kids". No one is forcing them to buy from the trucks. No one is forcing the trucks to be there, either.
Hint: even if even more "marketplace bias" is introduced by putting in an ordinance to basically ban the trucks, what are they going to do when a "black market" starts up with students bringing in Hershey bars, Ring-Dings, and the like in their backpacks? Gonna bring in the TSA Nudie Cams to look for a M&Ms bag in a hidden pants pocket?