Coffee should carry a warning label that it might cause cancer.  So ruled a California judge in late March 2018.

Some may scoff at this, noting that the main risk scientists have found is a trace chemical in roasted coffee that might cause cancer not in humans, but in rats.  No wonder so many Nanny Statist Democ-rats are worried.

Many of us Californians crave "natural organic food," whatever that is.  Most latter-day hippies also demand that others adopt the purported scientific "consensus" on global warming, but they reject the clear scientific consensus that GMOs, genetically modified organisms, are safe and wholesome.  Most have never heard of Univ. of California biologist Bruce Ames's evidence that pesticide-sprayed celery can be safer than organic celery, which fights insect attacks by flooding its green tissues with toxic natural psoralens.

My point, however, is not to bury warning labels, but to praise them.  We need more.

When you open your state and federal tax forms, for example, they should be topped with a large, bright red label warning: "TAXES ARE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.  They cause severe stress, which is known to cause cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and many other fatal ills.  They take your money, which you and your spouse and children need, so government can give it to others deemed more worthy of the fruits of your labor than you are."

Everything associated with government should wear a warning label reminding us that "GOVERNMENT IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.  Its rules, regulations, laws, bureaucracies, mandates, and other impositions cause people to feel fear, anxiety, and stress, which are known to cause cancer, heart attacks, strokes, premature aging, and sudden death."  The label could also show photos, like the warnings on cigarette packs.

When you enter a bank or place of investment, you should clearly see a large warning label: "USE OF GOVERNMENT PAPER MONEY IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.  It is an untrustworthy store of value, and the government and Federal Reserve deliberately devalue dollars by at least two percent per year.  Any form of life savings or investment priced in dollars loses at least 20 percent of its purchasing power every 10 years – and 80 percent of its value over an average 40-year working life."  In fact, every dollar bill should carry a large red warning label saying: "PAPER DOLLARS CAUSE STRESS AND ANXIETY, WHICH CAN CAUSE CANCER, HEART ATTACKS, AND SUDDEN DEATH."

The health risk from government is vastly greater than that from a trace chemical that might affect you if you drank 10,000 cups of coffee at once, which is how they test these risks on laboratory animals.

Such labels could give Americans a far better understanding of the hazard caused by an oversized government always eager to increase your tax or regulatory burden and endanger your health so Uncle Sam can grow even fatter.

We should require an environmental health impact study before any increase in the size, taxes, and regulations of government.  If a 5-percent rise in taxes could cause 5,000 American deaths by raising personal and social stress levels, that tax increase should not be permitted.  Any politician who votes to enlarge government should be required always to wear a large warning label identifying him as – you guessed it – hazardous to our health.

We should never accept any claim that raising taxes ultimately provides more health care or welfare to some citizens.  Californians are eager to label coffee a carcinogen – with a label that itself causes stress, and hence becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.  But medical researchers are finding that coffee has many health benefits, such as potentially reducing our risk of Alzheimer's.  Yet to judges who know nothing about science, such benefits are not allowed to offset coffee's hypothetical cancer risk.

So be it.  But we should also provide warning labels about the enormous health hazards to which government constantly subjects all of us.

Lowell Ponte, a coffee-swilling Californian, is a veteran think-tank futurist and author or co-author of eight books.  His latest, co-authored with Craig R. Smith, is Money, Morality & The Machine, available free and postpaid by calling 800-630-1492.  Lowell can be reached for interviews by email at radioright@aol.com.