Welfarism 32, On forcing restaurants to give their excess food to charities

Sen. Bam Aquino is a bright legislator but from time to time, may churn out lousy bills. Like this one. Food donation can be done voluntarily, no need for legislation and national coercion with penalties.

Good comment from Rone EbidoYee, friend of Louie:

"my resto dito sa amin sir na ganyan ang nka gawian na nila pinamimigay yung mga pagkain na sobra sa order ng customer yun bang inorder pero di nagalaw sa sobrang dami na.. at yung mga tira sa buffet table nila pinababalot nila at pinamimigay.. isang araw my reklamo sa kanila sa pamimigay daw ng kontaminadong pagkain.. na madumi daw.. na kesyo panis daw.. na halata naman na namemera lang yung nagreklamo.

binayaran ng resto yung mga nagreklamo pero nagsara na rin ito dahil sa issue na kontaminado yung pagkain nila.. minsan di mo rin masisisi kung di ipamigay ng mga resto ang left overs nila or yung mga pagkain na sobra dahil sa mga ganitong reason.. na tumutulong ka na nga pinakakain mo na sila ikaw pa masama kasi nga gusto ng ibang tao pati buhay nila gawin mong mas maganda.. ng Libre."

This is an example that giving away excess food can be done voluntarily, NO national coercion, no legislation with penalties needed. OA na. Pati micro decisions, papakialaman pa ng gobyerno? Ano kasunod, pag di mo pinamigay ang sobrang tubig mo sa banyo sa mga mahihirap, penalize by the state ka na rin? OA mga statists.

About excess buffet food, some restos do not allow take home. If they do, they make the customers sign a waiver. Pag na food poisoning sila dahil after many hours pa nila kinain yong binalot nila, mag demanda sa resto?

From the news report, it seems that all burden and costs will be on the restos, hotels, supermarkets, etc. Like the cost of transporting the excess food to charities/food banks. And if along the way, the food gets contaminated (from resto to food banks, from food banks to needy people), who will be sued and dragged to jails, most likely not the DSWD or food banks people, but the restos.

Kung canned and manufactured/uncooked food, baka pwede pa. But the Senator's target are restos with cooked food and hence, very short time (maybe 3-6 hours max) before food spoiling can occur.

Some guys cannot take contrary opinions and resort to personal insults quickly. Like this onion-skinned and near low-life counter-comment by Gus Cerdeña after my similar comments above on his wall:

"Nonoy, siempre naisip na nila yan. Common sense yan. Mas matalino sayo si Bam Aquino palagay ko. In fact, sa existing Food Donations Act, may protection ang nagdodonate. May sistema na iminumungkahi ang panukala. Alamin mo ang detalye kung gusto mo. Anong pinaglalabanan mo? Ang patunayan na mas May common sense ka? Puwes, mukhang in this case, wala.... If you want restaurants to throw away food instead of giving them to hungry people, the you're a bad, lousy person."

In my wall, all of my postings and comments are fair game. People can contradict them anytime, no need to resort to personal insults. Focus on the issue, the message, not the messenger. My main message is simple: Things that can be done voluntarily, like food donation by restos and hotels, NO need for legislation and coercion, with penalties, with new bureaucracies to monitor and enforce the new legislation. Statists are OA most of the time. Any "bright idea" they have should be legislated, should be enforced via national coercion. No room for voluntary, civil society action.

The restos decide whether to give away their excess food or throw them away if there is suspicion of any contamination (heavy coughing in front of the food by one or more customers) or saliva contamination by some children or unhygienic persons. That is why it should be voluntary NOT mandatory via legislation and national coercion. The statists are angry that their usual interventionism is contradicted as if they are the only ones who have the monopoly of truth and social concern. OA.

So this bill is bullying. The mandatory price discount of 20% given by restos (and drugstores, airlines, buslines, etc.) to (both rich and poor) senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) + VAT exemptions (nearly 30% of forced discounts) is another bullying because the cost of forced discounts cannot be credited as tax liabilities. So there will be additional costs to restos, hotels, plus raising the "war chest" vs future legal battles if some poor or pretending to be poor people (pushed by some enterprising lawyers) will sue them because the restos "gave them spoiled food."

One indicator that an idea is lousy is that it should be done via legislation and national coercion. Food donation lang, legislation pa? Many restos and hotels will voluntarily do that, it gives them good PR to the public, that they care for the poor. If they throw away excess food, that is to protect the public from eating partially-spoiled or partly-contaminated food. May buffet food, bayad na, hindi nagalaw, pero may umuubo ng ubo among the customers, spreading possible air-borne virus into the food. If the restos think this can endanger public health, better throw away the food. Now the government will criminalize the resto for that decision? Lousy.

Classical liberalism -- more individual liberty, more personal and parental responsibility, more civil society action -- is the ideological opposite of socialism and welfarism. The latter wants more state, more government, more bureaucracies. You as a person are incapable of helping your less fortunate neighbors, so the state should coerce, force and arm-twist you to help the poor via more taxes, more regulations, more fines, more imprisonment if you don't obey state orders and laws.

I hope that Sen. Kiko Pangilinan will not support this bill by his LP partymate, Sen. Bam Aquino. Keep the liberal philosophy -- liberate the people from too much state nannyism, regulations, prohibitions, penalties, bureaucratism. If people want to donate their excess to others, fine. If not, fine.

Soon, there will be new bills mandating the planting of organic agri only, mandating the donation of excess shoes and clothes to the poor, mandating that kasambahays' kids be provided education scholarship by their amos/employers -- with fines, imprisonment and harassment to violators. Statism by the socialists and state worshippers is lousy, very anti-liberal. Parang wala nang utak ang mga tao for voluntary solidarity with fellowmen, si gobyerno lang ang may utak -- utak pakialamero.

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See also:
Welfarism 29: Is Poverty Government Corruption-Created or Self-Inflicted?, October 05, 2014 
Welfarism 30: Big Government and Corruption of People's Values, December 06, 2014
Welfarism 31: More CCT and Subsidy Programs Won't Solve Self-inflicted Poverty, February 12, 2016