Leave it to San Francisco to take the “Happy” out of McDonald’s “Happy Meals.”
The liberal city’s leaders have voted to forbid its fast-food restaurants to include a toy in children’s meals if the meals have more fat, sugar and calories than the city considers proper.
Toys may now be offered only in meals that contain fruits and vegetables.
Anticipating how nutty such a scheme would appear to most of the country, one member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors told the Los Angeles Times, “I do believe the industry is going to take note of this. I don’t care how much they say, ‘It’s San Francisco, they’re wacked out there.'”
But silly as the ban is, it’s real danger is not its ridiculousness. It’s that it is one more unjustified governmental seizure of power. Parents are capable of making decisions about what their children will eat. That is not a government function.