The Advocate reported Thursday the Baker City Council’s potential legislation that concerns adult businesses. The new ordinance would bar new adult-oriented businesses from opening in the city and would require existing ones to be located at least 1,000 feet from a long list of public buildings – a requirement that would render most of Baker off-limits.
Baker, a city that attempted to ban Halloween in 2004, is making a mistake in disregarding its free market. American capitalism grounds itself in the free market of ideas and the theory of supply and demand. If there is demand for a product in a community, the business should be allowed to thrive.
City councils may have some leverage in deciding to outlaw most illegal drugs considering they negatively affect the health and well being of its citizens. But decisions to legislate morality are out of line. The council has no right to determine whether a business is beneficial to its citizens. Consumer spending and corporate competition should sort it out on their own.
According to The Advocate, the list of businesses in question includes locations that depend on at least one-third of their income from “adult-themed arcades, bookstores, cabarets, theaters, modeling studios and escort studios.”
The city council is not only attempting to stop adult-themed businesses from operating, but is also legislating what current businesses, adult-themed or not, can sell. The Baker economy cannot possibly profit from a ban on the sale of certain products, so any argument that this ordinance would be financially beneficial is unfounded.
The only argument the Baker City Council, a body that proclaimed Jesus is its Lord when attempting to ban Halloween, can make is a moral one. Religious, and therefore moral, freedom is paramount in American culture. This includes both freedom to practice religion and the freedom from government imposing on the religion and morality of its citizens.
The city council’s decision rules on a moral system that should not be forced on its citizens, much less its businesses. Let businesses and consumers run their course, and economic success will follow.
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