As everyone knows, there ain’t no Sanity Clause

A pity that there isn’t a sanity clause but there we are, there ain’t.

…an idea that is gaining traction in serious food policy circles: government-subsided dining. In 2024, Nourish Scotland called for the creation of public diners to improve health.

And, of course, we need to introduce a sanity clause into those policy circles. Because they really are suggesting that government owned, government run and government subsidised restaurants should be set up across the couontry.

Which is, of course, insane.

There is this concept of crowding out. If government enters a sector then that will reduce the ability of the already extant private sector to gain custom. So, new restaurants, subsidised, this will then kill off some to many of the extant eateries. It’s already a low profit business and this would be the killer blow for many.

Of course, it’s possible to suggest that this won’t happen - but that would mean no one goes to the subsidised and approved places in which case why the heck do it?

Either this will kill extant places or the new will gain no custom. There is no alternative.

Now, it is possible to think that perhaps some poorer people might be aided in gaining access to cooked food. OK, why not? But if that’s to be the aim then building anew is again that insanity. Because we’ve already tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of such outlets already. All the poorer require is a little more cash to be able to eat in them. Increasing benefits would be vastly cheaper than building a new system that is. And if you’re not willing to increase benefits - the efficient method of achieving the goal - then of course you’re not willing to spend vastly more money to achieve the goal inefficiently. Well, not unless there’s insanity in the air.

This is the same sort of idiocy as setting up an entirely new distribution system for, say, tampons. Instead of giving every woman in the country £2 a month and directions to the shops. And come on now, no one’s insane enough to do that now, are they? Pfft, of course not.

Now all we’ve got to do is make sure similarly insane suggestions get nowhere as well.

Tim Worstall