Saturday, September 19, 2009

No TIME for Responsibility

The Sept 21 TIME magazine had a section on "Responsibility". Typical of this halfwit rag, the TIME poll claims a deceptively-precise 46% think government should "require stores to charge for plastic bags". Of course stores do charge for bags; the real question is who should pay. My grocery store credits 2 cents for each bag brought in, effectively charging the same for new bags but avoiding complaints.

My grocery store also sells me Fair Trade coffee, because nobody should wait until 2015 for Starbucks to 'pioneer' ethically sourced coffee, as touted within the section entitled "25 Responsibility Pioneers". Questioning Starbucks' commitment to corporate responsibility would risk ad revenue, so it was cheaper for TIME to abdicate its editorial responsibility.