Mr Draker's party

Let me ask you a question, or actually a series of situations, and ask your opinion about them –

Mr. Draker buys a house with income that he has rightfully earned. He is pretty wealthy, so he buys a big house, with large open grounds around it. He is honest, family loving, and does not bother his neighbors. One day he decides to have a big party, where he invites a lot of his friends. This is a big smoking, drinking party, where he provides all the stuff including food, cigarettes, drinks etc. and makes it clear to his friends what kind of party it is going to be. Since the house has big open grounds, with large trees and walls around it, we can assume that the neighbors are not going to be bothered with the noise. In fact he has invited all of the neighbors to the party and they have al accepted. Since this is a big party he invites caterers to take care of the party, and the caterer also sends a few servers to help with the party. The party starts normally, but in the middle of it suddenly there cops drop by and stop the party and give the following conversation goes on between Mr. Draker and the cop –

Mr. Draker: What is the problem officer? Why are you stopping the party?

Officer: Since this is a party where a lot of people have been invited, this automatically turns your private property into public place, and since you are not allowed to smoke in a public place, I am afraid you have violated the law by smoking in a public place.

Mr. Draker: But this is my home and all of these people are my friends who have all agreed to come to this party knowing full well that we will be smoking in the party.

Officer: That does not matter. You did three things to turn this into a public place – a) you invited other people besides your immediate family b) you employed servers in the party. As a representative of the government, it is my duty to protect the interests of these poor minimum wage paid servers. These poor servers do not have a choice but to work here, since this is a small town and they do not have much other choice of employment they are forced to work here. Besides, they have families and they can’t move out of this town to get other jobs either.

Mr. Draker: Officer. We frequently organize these parties at each other’s homes and use the same caterers. If you stop the party, their will be no future ones, and the caterer will loose a lot of business. With the reduced business he will probably employ less people, or may even close. Would that not harm the servers?

Officer: But, at least they will not have to work in the smoke filled public place, and should be healthier.

Mr. Draker: What if servers themselves come and tell you that they are ok with being in this smoke filled place?

Officer: Hmmm… Let’s stop arguing, I am just following the law and I do not care what you say. I am shutting down the party.

So, what is your opinion – did the officer do the right thing? What if people start paying for the privilege to attend the party? Does that change anything? What if Mr. Draker buys a place in the city downtown sandwiched between two bars, and has the party regularly there? Does that change anything?

So, what do you think of government banning smoking in privately owned, adult only bars?

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