Restaurant Letter Grades Make Your Food Worse
1st March 2012
A few weeks ago, I went with a friend to my favorite bar in Midtown (The Bar Downstairs at the Andaz Fifth Avenue). We ordered some cheese to go with our cocktails, and it arrived very cold, like it had just come out of the refrigerator. I was displeased. That is not how you are supposed to serve cheese. But today, I am relieved to learn that I don’t need to blame the bar—the cold cheese was the government’s fault.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
The problem with any regulatory scheme is that it is based on the (unproved) assumptions that the legislators who created the scheme, and the bureaucrats who enforce it, know everything that there is to know about the subject AND that their motives in creating the regulations are as pure as pure can be. The available evidence suggests that, not only are these assumptions false, but the way to bet is that the regulations are based on pig-ignorance and corrupt cronyism.