The "Power Wall" Smoking Ban Has Failed

On Friday night, I took a quick trip to my local convenience store to buy the winning ticket for this week's Lotto Max draw. I think they gave me the wrong ticket, as it turns out, they sold mine to someone in Owen Sound. Oh well... maybe next time. While I was waiting in line I looked up at that blank wall behind the cashier, for behind that wall I knew were cigarettes. Now, I don't smoke and I never have but I think everyone knows what is behind there. They are called "Power Walls" and they are illegal in Ontario.

In may of 2008, the province of Ontario along with many other provinces banned the display of cigarettes in convenience stores. I'm going to show you a picture here, something as rare as a sighing of the Yeti, something which hasn't been seen in almost 6.5 years.. .something which is illegal:

 

There... I did it, let's see if I can write the rest of this article without being jailed.

So, as I'm standing there in line, I got to thinking... I wonder if the power wall ban has been effective in reducing smoking? If you are a regular reader of this blog or a listener to my podcast, you'll know what my immediate suspicions are... not at all... and I WAS RIGHT! A report out last year shows no change in the smoking trend of Ontarians.

The report was produced by the Propel Centre For Population Health Impact at the University of Waterloo and appeared on a number of websites. I found it at the website of the Manitoba Tobacco Reduction Alliance (If you'd like to read the whole report, click HERE.). In the report, appeared the following chart:

 

As you can see, the number of daily smokers has remained pretty steady, even after the power wall ban came into effect in 2008. Here is that chart in a different form:

For some reason there was a big up trend in 2012, I didn't look deep enough in the report to see if there might be a reason for this. Now, it appears that "Smoking Prevalence" (which basically includes occasional smokers as well) is down. However, the trend was going down even before convenience stores were forced to cover up:

Of course, I'm sure some will claim some sort of victory with this final stat claiming that numbers are down since 2008. Government jumps in front of a parade, then pretends to be leading the parade.

So in conclusion... what has happened? Lots of money was spent putting this plan in place and there has been no impact or reduction in smoking levels. The "out of sight, out of mind" mentality clearly has not worked here in Ontario. Let's let retailers again be allowed to display the products they have for sale.

Libertarianism 101

This week's podcast episode was titled "Libertarianism 101". I wanted to clarify some basic libertarian positions that I passively make reference to that may confuse some people. We covered 4 areas... Click HERE to listen to the full 30 minute episode.

Here is a summary:

Government Regulation

Typical Thought: We need government regulation to clamp down on big business. Without government regulation, the consumers will be abused, prices will be sky high and we'd be drinking orange juice laced with bleach.

If you really think about it, government regulations are kind of redundant. In a free and open marketplace, Businesses will take it among themselves to make sure products are safe and offered at a competitive price. Otherwise, they'd be out of business.

What about drugs? Many think that the FDA and Health Canada need to keep unproven drugs off the market. But no one thinks of it the other way. What about people who die while waiting for drugs to be approved? There is tremendous evidence to suggest government has killed more people withholding drugs from the market than it ever has releasing a drug too early.

Conclusion: Government regulation often has the opposite effect to what was originally intended. And any well meaning company would take it among themselves to make sure standards are met. Otherwise... you'd be out of business.

Monopoly

Typical Thought: We need government regulation to oversee big business... otherwise Wal-Mart would run everything.

We hear about monopolies all the time but in reality, it have never occurred in the history of north America. In fact, the only REAL monopolies occur with government ie. Alcohol sales, Healthcare, Heating and Hydro. All competition is outlawed in these areas... THAT is a true monopoly.

Conclusion: The word "Monopoly" is over used, and the only REAL monopolies in society occur within government.

 Capitalism

Typical Thought: Capitalism is bad. Only government oversight can prevent big business from abusing their power.

People THINK we live in a capitalist country... but we don't. The fact is, most government policy favours big business over little business. Business and government work very closely together. All you have to do is look at the biggest donors to the main political parties to know what's really going on.

Conclusion: We don't actually live in a country that practices Capitalism. What we THINK is capitalism, is actually crony capitalism brought on by bad government policy.

Government Spending

Typical Thought: Government is essential to keep the economy moving, invest in our future and create jobs to ensure the economy stays strong.

Because government doesn't have any of it's own money. By default, every dollar that government spends, is a dollar NOT spent some place else. Some people disagree with this claiming that the "Multiplier Effect" has a positive effect on the economy. However, it is debatable whether or not the multiplier effect actually exists.

Conclusion: Government doesn't actually create jobs. The best it can do is move a job from one location to another.

Oh, How The Wind Blows

Remember that really windy day we had last week (November 24th)? What a great day that must have been for wind energy huh? Yeah, about that... it wasn't.

Last Monday was one of the windiest days in recent memory and oh boy were Ontario's wind turbines moving. The problem was, they were producing way more power than was needed. This over excess of power ended up costing Ontario taxpayers $10 Million for just that one day.

According to Wind Concerns Ontario, the province generated over 45,000 megawatt hours of electricity that day. Because we didn't need that electricity, we ended up exporting 20,000 of that it to Quebec, Michigan and New York state. But we sold it off at a LOSS, just over $11 per megawatt hour. To put that in perspective, all that wind produced power is worth, $135/MWh... that's a boatload of money lost.

The problem with wind power is the wind blows mainly at night, but a majority of energy demand is during the day. So, power is being produced at a time when it's not needed. Because of this, power is sold off to neighbouring provinces or even nearby american states at bargain bin prices. To make up for this loss, prices during the day are artificially high. So, we are paying extra high electricity prices during the day, to make up for the power we're not using at night.

Once power is on the grid, it has to go somewhere. As of now, it's very difficult to store power for use later. The only method I'm aware of involves large tanks of compressed air underground. This of course is not cheap and sounds very unsafe. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen.

The wind is certainly blowing with Green energy. A report in the Globe and Mail this week suggested that Green energy jobs have eclipsed jobs in the oil industry. Do you know one person working in the green energy industry?... I don't. It's easy to proclaim something a success when it's subsidized at the expense of everyone else. The green energy industry only exists because of millions in government bailouts handed out every year.