[Source: Los Angeles Daily News] Because lawmakers in Sacramento seem not to think they have anything better to do, they’ll be holding hearings soon on a new bill to force businesses to be digital receipt compliant.
The legislation, Assembly Bill 161, has, as usual, the best of intentions. Paper receipts, of course, consume energy to produce. That means carbon emissions. And as most Californians are well aware, paper receipts can be bafflingly long and often wind up in the trash. Based on logic like this, sponsoring Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, concludes that we don’t “need” paper receipts, the same way we don’t need plastic straws, and should therefore do without them too.
If only it were that straightforward. AB161 is another case of nanny-state lawmakers obsessing over what they think we shouldn’t use, only to adopt a blissful ignorance about what we will be forced to use as an alternative.
Digital receipts seem to the incurious observer like the height of convenience. Maybe for the consumer who doesn’t have to submit paper copies of transactions for tax purposes, or who doesn’t mind businesses establishing an electronic record of their every purchase. But of course, millions of consumers don’t fall into those categories.
And what about businesses themselves, especially smaller ones? For modest establishments, the time and cost of purchasing and maintaining the hardware and software needed to go digital on receipts is a foreboding nuisance. Add to that the drag on business imposed by introducing a new step into every single transaction.
Finally, the environmental upside of the bill is simply negligible. Stats cited in its defense apply to the nation as a whole, and make up just a fraction of America’s total emissions — which, of course, are themselves just a fraction of world pollutants, huge portions of which come from places like China where we have effectively zero leverage in harm reduction.
Sacramento has plenty of legitimate issues to contend with. Taking a bold stand against paper receipts might make state lawmakers feel like they’re doing something of value, but they’re not.
AB161 should be rejected, and voters mindful of how wasteful state lawmakers are with their efforts.
Source: Los Angeles Daily News
June 18, 2019
