No one is making you go to a bowling alley and if you go to one thinking it will smell like mountain springs, you could always just walk out. Sure, you’d prefer it smell like downy fresh blankets when you take your kiddos, but life’s tough and doesn’t always bend to our every whim.
This is a perfect example though. You go to bowling alleys how often? The majority of their business comes from leagues and people in leagues evidently smoke like chimneys. It's a business decision the owners make. As entrepreneurs they weigh the options and make a decision. That’s fine because it’s their property to do with what they will. Every bowling alley I’ve been to reeks to high heaven which indicates to me that owners believe that allowing smoking attracts more business than not and allow it. Apparently Amazone and Swings n' Things believes that allowing smoking would not be a good business decision and so they don’t. That's liberty.
To take this discussion in a different direction, let’s look at my employment with Pat. Framing isn’t the safest job in the world. Try carrying a 16 foot 2x12 across a wobbly 2x6 beam 15 feet above a cement basement for the first time. The risks were self-evident As Pat can attest to, I wasn’t exactly Jonny Twinkletoes walking on 2x4s 2 stories up (3 if they had a walkout basement). Still, it was my choice. No one forced me to take the job, and I didn’t need OSHA to point out the hazard or fine Pat thousands of dollars for allowing electric lines to get jumbled up (Oh no!). Employment at will, patronage at will.
The morally correct course of action would be to frequent restaurants that don’t allow smoking and informing businesses that allow smoking why you don’t eat there. But that’s harder than having a lobbyist in the state capital work the system and make businesses set up things in a way that’s advantageous to you and me.
2 comments:
What are you talking about??!!?? I couldn't care less about where people work. That is their problem. Your potential risk was primarily from your "BOAT" feet! I do, however, care about going out to a restaurant and leaving with that awful odor clinging to my coat and clothes and breathing in that toxic air. And the smoking/non-smoking section is a joke. Nothing like spending a fortune to go out to dinner and having to deal with the odor and smoky air. And, for that matter, the local t.v. station did air readings in many local establishments in our area, including ritzy restaurants, and every single restaurant that had a smoking section rated significantly above the EPA standards. To say visit a non-smoking establishment is ridiculous as there is no such animal around here. If smoking is not banned, there is always a smoking section as restaurants do not want to lose any potential customers.
two responses-
I don't care about the EPA. period.
Just cook dinner at home then if this pernicious evil of smoke smell is too much. BTW, the Chojnicki's are smoke free.
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