On Wed, 10 Mar 2021 14:12:58 -0000, "tim..."
wrote:

snip

Now, if you have some proven medical condition where part of the
healing / recovery is a prescription of cut flowers then I guess that
could be justified but outside that ... ?

In a developed economy spending money on something that makes your house
nicer

When it does ...

is just a business opportunity

In many cases it is indeed. Or a businesses opportunity that is
serving a demand, even if it isn't creating / stimulating it.

It's no different from redecorating your house

I guess that depends why you are doing it? If you moved into a house
where the PO had used colours / materials / styles you don't find
pleasant then 'of course' you would want to change them to something
that does (if only for that reason). But I decorated this house with
what I found suitable at the time and that hasn't changed yet? So why
would I bother to decorate it again when I don't enjoy doing so?

no-one's forced to buy decorative flowers.

I believe they are, though social / commercial pressures. There are
loads of people out there who are trapped into following fashion, be
that clothing or house decoration and who simply couldn't not buy
their partner cut flowers on Valentines day, their birthday or
anniversary. It was the Mrs birthday last month some time and I got
her nothing (I don't do cards in any case) because we are grown ups
and do what we want, not what others expect us to do.

But OTOH there's no reason to make a law banning it

There could be if there was more of a need for food for survival than
flowers to cater to peoples 'fancy'. See, just because you can or like
to do something doesn't mean it's right (that you can or do).

There is a law in place indirectly right now, if the government
provides a facility to allow people into the country to pick edible
crops but not flowers (so the flowers rot in the fields, wasting food
growing land)?

Ever heard of rationing where even the essentials were limited and
fancy stuff simply wasn't available (other than at high cost and often
via the black market).

Cheers, T i m