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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: ont.general,can.general
Subject: Re: Sunday openings
Message-ID: <7367@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Dec-86 16:19:42 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.7367
Posted: Wed Dec  3 16:19:42 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Dec-86 16:19:42 EST
References: <2819@watdcsu.UUCP> <709@watmum.UUCP>, <2822@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 22

>   ... Given your
>   free society would you prefer the government limit Sunday
>   openings or all the merchants get together (can you spell
>   monopoly) and decide to profit maximize by not opening
>   Sunday...

Given a free society, the answer is clear:  neither.  It may be in the
interest of the merchants to restrict Sunday openings, but it is not in
the interest of the customers.  As others have pointed out, once the
interest of the merchants takes top priority, clearly we end up with the
stores open only 9-5 Mon-Fri, or less.  There is no valid reason for the
government to intervene to help the merchants at the customers' expense.
If it were a clear-cut, everyone-benefits-nobody-loses case, that would
be different.  It's not.

If you are truly concerned about the store employees -- have you asked
them whether they want you to protect them? -- then solve the real problem,
by imposing limits on the work-week or something along those lines.  That's
a pretty flimsy excuse for Sunday closing.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry