NANNY STATE: ObamaCare Sics FDA Regs On Vending Machines

Posted by Brian

Remember Nancy Pelosi drooling spittle, stuttering,and blathering on about  "we have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it"?  Well, it's all starting to ooze out.  Sort of like puss out of a festering sore.
Pretty soon the machine you get your soda, snack, or sandwich from is going to be required to tell you all of the nutritional info of the products it dispenses. You know - calories, fat content, serving size, yada, yada yada.
You say, "That a good thing, right?"
Not so fast.  This applies to every vendor in the United States with 20 or more machines. Many of these, and there are approximately 11,000,  are small businesses and vendors.
Health advocates say it will help people make better choices. Right!! Because we all know that we go to vending machines based on the cornucopia of healthy nutrition options.  "Should I have the honey buns or the powdered donuts?"  "Which is better for me - Red Bull or Monster?"

What it's going to do is create more businesses to go under, and thus even more unemployment.
"Why is that?"  I'm glad you asked.  Because the mandate does not require that a sticker be put on the machine (which wouldn't be feasible anyway, due to high turnover of product), but software updates  to display the info.  One vendor says the cost is about "$500 per machine" to update their software to comply with the new standards.  An average vendor who owns about 300 machines would have to pay $150K to bring his machines into compliance, not including maintenance costs to change the programs if he updates his product line.  Ultimately, this cost will be "passed on to the consumer".
Of course, you can only pass on the cost if the consumer still feels the price is reasonable to pay. Likely, the higher cost will cause people to find other alternatives.
This was exactly the argument against the nanny state and Obamacare.  If the State takes over the healthcare of it's citizens, it is then able to get it's tentacles into every aspect of your life - from your eating habits, what kind of cars we can drive, foods we can or can't buy based on our weight or body fat percentage, or carbon taxes based on weight.
It's not here yet, but if we don't turn this ship around, it will be coming - and a whole lot more. What is certain is that the soda or bag of chips you want to get on your break at work just got more expensive.

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