We at SwiftEconomics would love to wish our readers a Happy New Year and apparently, so do all the city, state and federal legislatures. According to CNN, starting on or near January 1st, 40,697 new laws will come into effect. Some are very sensible, such as restictions on human trafficking. Others, well others simply epitomize the nanny state at it’s petty and invasive worst. Such as:

“A California measure that limits trans fat in restaurant food also takes effect January 1. Enacted in 2008, it requires restaurants to use oils, margarines and shortenings that have less than half a gram of trans fat per serving. A similar provision will apply to baked goods in 2011.”

As if we didn’t have enough laws already. As we speak, you almost certainly broke the law today in some way, form or fashion, as did I. This new wave of legislation reminds me of Harvey Silvergate’s disturbing new book, Three Felonies a Day (the approximate average for an American citizen) or Gene Healy’s, Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Nearly Everything. We simply have too many laws in this country and it’s time our legislatures made the resolution to start thinning out our law books.