Here in San Luis Obispo County, plastic grocery bags are soon to become a thing of the past. They're useful, cheap and convenient, so they must be snuffed out in the name of doing it "for the children."

It seems Los Angeles may be following suit. I want to highlight two items regarding this isssue.

Item #1:

"We are trying to get out our message that these bans don't really do much," Dempsey said. "San Francisco did a survey and found that 0.6 percent of its litter was from plastics. After they had a ban, plastics accounted for 0.64 percent of their litter. It made no difference.

"What we are saying is there is no real benefit."

So, it doesn't really have any measurable effect, but we'll do it anyway.

Item #2:

Councilman Paul Koretz said he expected that Crown Poly would need to eliminate only a small number of positions. And he compared the company to makers of horse-drawn carriages at the start of the 20th century.

Councilman Koretz apparently knows better than the plastic bag manufacturer how his business operates and how many jobs this proposed ban will cost. This is probably based on Koretz's vast business experience.

Finally, Koretz should probably get a refund for his history degree from UCLA. Horse-drawn carriage manufacturers didn't go out of business because the government banned the things.