The Cupcake Principle

George Will wrote a column recently in which he promulgated the cupcake corollary to explain the exponential growth of the regulatory state.  Will writes on the subject of cupcakes,

Washington’s response to the menace of school bake sales illustrates progressivism’s ratchet:  The federal government subsidizes school lunches, so it must control the lunches’ contents, which validates regulation of what it calls “competitive foods,” such as vending machine snacks.  Hence the need to close the bake sale loophole, through which sugary cupcakes might sneak:  Foods sold at fundraising bake sales must, with some exceptions, conform to federal standards.

Here is the North Star State, there is no shortage of examples that illustrate the cupcake principle or as Will summarizes, “Swollen government has a shriveled brain.”  I offer the example of the Amish man in trouble for not building a modern septic system for his new home.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports,

Ammon Swartzentruber appeared in Fillmore County District Court on Wednesday to contest a misdemeanor charge of failing to get a building permit for the home his family began constructing in Harmony [a town in Minnesota].

"We never had to do it before and we don't believe in changing," said Ammon.

He may not believe in changing, but his local county government sure does.  The Star Tribune adds,

The county adopted new treatment system ordinances in December of 2013. Swartzentruber told KTTC-TV that he was able to obtain building permits in the past because that ordinance didn't exist.

"In the past some of those conditions may not have been in place," said Fillmore County Attorney Brett Corson.

Following the inexorable logic of the cupcake principle, we have the situation in 2014 where Fillmore County Minnesota is prosecuting an Amish man for not joining the 21^st century.