Insurance industry ambushing youth?

Yesterday I violated many illogical Allowed Clouds with the Peace Bike and the Eyewitness Cam. But because I'm 35 and not 15, there was one I could not violate: the now almost universal rule that bars young people from food marts.

Food marts???

I know, man, those food marts are really seedy places, aren't they?

When I was about 10, a local corner grocery had a sign on its door that said something like, "No more than 2 kids allowed in store at the same time." I think it was the only grocery I ever saw with that rule prior to the 2000s. Even without the sign, the now-defunct store had a reputation for mean clerks and selling spoiled milk. It's long been suspected that the sign disappeared because families complained to Kentucky human rights officials.

But these days it's noteworthy if a food mart doesn't have such a twilight law against youth. I try boycotting stores with such a sign, because I hate irrational meanness, but I've found that to be virtually impossible. Around 2001 (ahem), it seems that most such food stores adopted such a policy.

The rule is still worded in a similar manner. It might say something almost identical to the aforementioned sign, or it might say something like, "No kids under 18 during school hours."

Why is this rule almost universal now?

I have a couple of theories. I think the stores' insurers might have forced them to do it. Why? Well, it doesn't have to be for any logical reason. It could be one of these things like how insurers won't insure homeowners if they have a dog of a certain breed. Just like how insurers think there's bad dog breeds (a belief that's been debunked), maybe they also believe the human species has bad age groups.

Maybe it's not insurers. Maybe local law enforcement are ordering stores to enact such policies to suppress youth. Why such an interest in what school hours are?

What if you're homeschooled? Homeschoolers often don't have the same hours as students at public or private schools. What if you're on out-of-school suspension? Schools today will suspend at the drop of a dust speck. If I was a store clerk, do you think I'd want to be a party to cooperating with a school's draconian discipline policy?

As a grown man, I believe the community has no obligation to cooperate with schools that are so patently unreasonable that they suspend a student for wearing a maroon shirt instead of red.

When people say it takes a village to raise a child, this isn't what it's supposed to mean. Adults should provide guidance, not fear.

Evidently, insurance execs or police officials have never been kids themselves. Yes, I know that's impossible, but it sure seems to be the case. It seems like those who oppress the young today are all the same age they were 25 years ago - and they're just as cranky.

Only now they get their way more often.

While there's less and less regulation on banks, insurers, and other powerful corporations, there's more and more regulation on individuals.