10. Not buying books hampers the sale of reading glasses and investment stocks.
9. Not buying cable television increases demand for prenatal care.
8. Not buying little black dresses decreases the sale of flowers and candy.
7. Not buying carbon set-offs decreases demand for architects near Al Gore’s mansion.
6. Not buying soap increases the demand for an “Occupy” movement (while the empirical data supports this conclusion I concede the mechanism of causation has yet to be determined).
5. Men not buying whiskey affects the fiscal health of battered women shelters.
4. Not buying an American car increases the campaign contributions from unions to bailout friendly congresspersons, in turn raising union dues and ultimately the price of both American cars and income taxes.
3. Women not buying one last apple-tini diminishes the sale of replacement garments.
2. Not buying an X-Box diminishes carpentry in the basements of the parents of Generation Y.
1. Not buying lessons on how to shoot craps decreases purchases of traditional Indian headgear.
If not buying insurance affects interstate commerce by altering the price of medicine and insurance for those who do, then any other non-purchase can also be said to affect some market price somewhere as well.
Can you imagine what laws will come from Congress should the Supreme Court green light the regulation of inactivity? The lengths they will travel to make connections from inactivity to an affect on interstate commerce will make the above tongue-in-cheek list a reality.
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
It's true enough that this paradigm would enable the government to regulate all economic activity in some form or another, but there are non-economic activities, which should be beyond the grasp of even this expansive reading of the commerce clause. The commerce clause may give the government the authority to force you to buy an apple a day, for example, but I don't think it gives them the authority to make you eat it. I'm worried that the argument that economic inactivity is the last possible bright line isn't quite as strong as we'd like it to be.
Dec '10
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
Yeah... no. I bet that if the Supreme Court determines that you have to buy a gym membership in order to reduce the cost of treatment for preventable diseases, then you also must actually go to the gym and exercise.
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
For the hipster set:
Not having your parents buy you a guitar affects the sale of ironically cheap beer.
Not buying books on Derrida affects the sale of noise-canceling earphones for the person next to you in the coffeeshop.
Jul '10
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
Lurkers not buying Ricochet's grande latte decreases the purchases of "moisturizing shower gel with eucalyptus and Tom's of Maine organic toothpaste" by Rob Long.
Apr '11
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
Maura Pennington, Guest Contributor:
Not buying books on Derrida affects the sale of noise-canceling earphones for the person next to you in the coffeeshop. · Dec 5 at 4:51pm
Wait. All writing is a commentary upon itself. I thought I was doing nothing when I read Writing and Difference. My bad.
Jan '11
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
If the inactive dead can vote, why can't they be taxed, too? Another version of the death tax?
Dec '10
Re: If Not Buying Insurance Injects You Into Interstate Commerce, Here’s 10 Other Ways to Affect Commerce by Doing Nothing
Tommy De Seno: 3. Women not buying one last apple-tini diminishes the sale of replacement garments.
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Not to mention maternity clothes, diapers, baby clothes, toys ect.