"Who Owns the Restaurant?" by Alpha Unit

Go into almost any business, particularly a restaurant, and you might see a posting that reads, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” This is perfectly lawful. But you can’t refuse service for just any old reason. The government said so. You can’t refuse to serve someone because he’s Black. Or Jewish. Or White. Or because she’s a woman. Or disabled. Or Muslim. The federal government says that you can’t refuse service on the basis of:

  1. race
  2. color
  3. religion
  4. national origin
  5. age
  6. sex
  7. familial status
  8. disability status
  9. veteran status

You can’t. That’s all there is to it. “Well, I own the restaurant!” you declare. “Why can’t I decide who I will and won’t serve, however I want to?” You own the restaurant, but the government lets you own it, you see. The government decides what you have to do to be able to own it and to keep owning it. Government-created infrastructure and government-mandated regulation of commerce make it possible for you to be in business. The government’s got its hands all over and all into your restaurant. (It’s got its hand in the till, too.) It gets to tell you how you can run your restaurant. That includes laying down the rules for refusing service. “This is government going too far!” you and Rand Paul might insist. Maybe. Government has a way of doing that. Somebody is always thinking that the government’s gone too far. And somebody is always thinking that it hasn’t gone far enough. One act of government can create both criticisms! No matter what it does, somebody’s not going to like it. Guaranteed.

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0 thoughts on “"Who Owns the Restaurant?" by Alpha Unit”

  1. Refusing to serve someone based on one’s race/colour is the lowest of low. Its absolutely inhumane.

  2. One act of government can create both criticisms!
    No matter what it does, somebody’s not going to like it. Guaranteed.

    Unfortunately, that’s what you get when you have such a multiracial/diverse democracy. Somebody’s always going to be pissed off. There will never be any true consensus.
    That’s why Socialism will never work in the U.S, but that’s another story.

    1. I don’t know. Wouldn’t this be the nature of politics even in a racially homogeneous society?

      1. I’m not saying that everything will be wonderful in a homogenous society. Those societies would also have various problems of their own.
        However, homogenous societies do get to avoid various headaches that plague the U.S, and increasingly Europe.

      2. I’m not saying that everything will be wonderful in a homogenous society. Those societies would also have various problems of their own.
        However, homogenous societies do get to avoid various headaches that exist in the U.S, and increasingly Europe.

  3. Refusing to serve someone based on one’s race/colour is the lowest of low. Its absolutely inhumane.
    Why? I bet you cant explain

  4. I know of a restaurant that had problems with black people who wore baggy jeans and oversized white t-shirts getting into fights so they banned people wearing baggy jeans and/or oversized white t-shirts from entering. Needless to say the local papers at the time called them “racist,” for it even though black people not wearing such clothes were still allowed in and theoretically white people wearing them would also be banned.

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