Another brilliant move

Once upon a time, politicians here in Michigan had a brilliant idea:  ban smoking in bars.  All of them.  Across the board.  Gotta protect the health of the people, no matter what the cost.

Opponents warned that it would be a disaster.  After all, if people go out to bars to drink, play pool and hang out, they'll often want to smoke.  If they can't smoke, then they're less likely to go out.  If they don't go out, they won't spend money.  Bars will suffer a downturn (possibly fatal) in business, tax revenues will drop, and the economy in the State will suffer.

But no.  Those people are fools.  A smoking ban would have no effect.  The politicians and anti-smoking people said so!  And thus the ban passed....

.... And now behold!  42% of respondents to a recent poll found their business has dropped since the ban went into effect.  Along with loss of jobs & loss of tax revenues, the State has even found a drop in lottery revenues.

Great thinking folks!

At some point, I hope that politicians and bureaucrats figure out that screwing over small and medium businesses, and costing them money is somehow harmful to the economy.

But I doubt it.  They're all morons.