[wsxcde]

I feel both sides are making reasonable points. On the one hand, telling people where they ought to buy their food from does seem like government overreach. On the other hand, there's considerable evidence that people's nutritional choices are terrible for their own and their children's health.

But there's an obvious way to resolve this debate! Run these laws as A/B trials across demographically similar neighborhoods. Track people's health outcomes over the course of the experiment. If the laws seem to be working in making people healthier and happier, keep them. And if they don't, just drop the law.

We're drowning in data! There's no need to go back to the world of Socrates/Plato to try and figure everything out via thought experiments in one's own head!