Opus 2015-387: Liberty Butter

I was wrong in my suspicion but found that the truth was worse than my cynicism.

I am talking about the butter at breakfast.  At one time they had a large crock full of butter in individual pats sitting by the sugar, salt and napkins.  You could take what you wanted without having to wait for someone to get it for you.  Then one day it disappeared behind the counter.

It turns out it is government regulation rather than corporate greed.

I assumed that the bean counters decided that people were taking too much butter and wanted to ration it.  I was irritated but that is a business decision.  They have a right to make a profit and stay in business.  I have a right to go somewhere else if I find things too inconvenient.

I was wrong.  I not only lost my butter but lost a little freedom.

I asked one of the employees about it one time.  He said an audit they found that the butter was not cold enough when it was left out on the counter.  Evidently there is some government regulation about how cold butter is supposed to be kept.  It doesn’t matter that butter can sit out at room temperature for days and have no ill effects.  As someone pointed out, butter was developed in an age of no refrigeration in an effort to find a use for the milk that would go bad.  They don’t care that I like my butter soft so it will spread instead of destroying the bread.  They simply saw another way to protect me, keep me safe and mess up my life with a power grab. 

So my apologies to the greedy capitalists trying to save a nickle.  It is more a case of the tentacles of the nanny state.  I prefer greed because when the nanny state passes a regulation there is no place I can go to get away from their control.

Liberty dies one butter pat at a time. 

homo unius libri