Reply #31: A one time investment in a couple of reusable bags ($3) will save your folk money in the end

[frazzled]

Tax or no tax. This argument fails to impress me (though I do agree with the sometimes faux empathy with poverty that is labeled 'progressive').

The need to reduce plastics cuts across all social lines: we're all in this together. It's only one aspect of the problem, but it's significant enough. The poor, remember, suffer inordinately from environmental problems: all those dumps with the waste material like plastic bags? They ain't putting them in Scarsdale.

I bought two heavy-duty (canvas/oilcloth) reusable bags from Ikea: they cost $1.50 each. They hold tons of groceries, and I've had them for about a year and a half. I also have a thermal bag that I got free from the opening of a new Whole Foods. If you want to go upscale, but convenient, buy an 'Enviro-sac'--it folds up to about 2 x 3 inches and weighs only an ounce or two, but is roomy and surprisingly strong. You could put it in your pocket or purse. It's $9.95 (I bought one for my son's girlfriend), but over a couple of years of use, even a poor person might find it cost effective.

Don't cut the poor out of being part of society--society that is trying to do its part to reverse environmental depredations.

Worry about more important things: like why the poor don't even have grocery stores in their neighborhoods. About tax policy. About the rising cost of heating oil and natural gas. About skyrocketing food prices.

But don't tell me even the poorest person can't afford to reuse a bag.