Let’s end the moralizing on holiday business restrictions

Moralizing about legally preventing retailers from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas has become a holiday tradition. It’s time to end this paternalistic prohibition and allow store owners, employees, and customers to decide if they want to open, work, and shop.

Yes, I know, what about the families? I have a really close family, but we’ve never had breakfast, lunch and dinner at one person’s house on one day. Even if someone has to work a 10hour shift, can’t he enjoy early brunch or late dinner, or have a family day Friday to Sunday? Some people don’t have family. Some are lonely, depressed, battling substance abuse, trying to pay the rent, and they want to work or have something to do.

Police, nurses and many professions work holidays. If you argue those poor souls are “essential,” why can Starbucks open on these holidays? My theory: It’s legal for Starbucks to open because the do-gooders, who love telling everyone else what to do, want their fancy coffee. And, these elitists look down their noses at people who want to buy inexpensive presents after dinner.

Speaking of shopping, if shopping on these days is so awful, let’s ban buying things on the internet! Of course, people do shop on the web when stores are closed. So, our businesses lose sales, and our state loses revenue.

The law is discriminatory and arbitrary, like requiring time-and-a-half pay on certain days, which should also be eliminated. Does every restaurant in Chinatown have to close for Chinese New Year or pay their employees an extra 50 percent? Of course not, yet Chinese-Americans who don’t celebrate Christmas are banned from buying or selling retail items on Christmas. Meanwhile, the Wongs can open Kowloon restaurant to the delight of customers who want to dine out and staff who earn big tips that day.

Please remember, I’m not advocating that people work or shop on these days, or that employers shouldn’t be kind to their employees. I just trust millions of citizens to determine the best policy through their own decisions and behavior, not a small group of politicians dictating for everyone like a group of tribal elders. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas, even if you can’t buy a bottle of wine at your local liquor store, because the law forced it to close or to pay employees so much that it didn’t make sense to open.