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They weren't trite or silly replies. Perhaps you are unaware of the history of child labor in this country. Perhaps you are unaware of the history of companie

They weren't trite or silly replies. Perhaps you are unaware of the history of child labor in this country. Perhaps you are unaware of the history of companies knowingly selling products that are harmful. It was government intervention that largely stopped these practices. There are lots of examples of where government has stepped in to regulate affairs to protect people from making bad or ill informed decisions. Before seatbelt use became popular or considered by the population as necessary government forced car manufacturers to put them in cars even though it increased the price of a car. Most people can't make an informed decision on what constitutes safe food. Consumers rely on government to have adequate standards that are enforced. Without such standards people would make bad decisions.

dnautics 16y ago
"Most people can't make an informed decision on what constitutes safe food. Consumers rely on government to have adequate standards that are enforced. Without such standards people would make bad decisions." Bullshit. What government agency prevents us from having exploding lightbulbs. There isn't one. It's done by Underwriter's Laboratory. There is no good reason why we can't have an Underwriter's laboratory for food. Or an underwriter's laboratory for medicines, instead of the FDA. In fact we are seeing en mass rebellion against the USDA (particularly in the organic-certification area) where the USDA is seen as basically an agent that prevents upstart food producers and entrenches big-food interests that can afford to pay for extremely expensive certification. You know what, the FDA screws up big time, too. Remember how we had an e coli outbreak? So what are you going to do when 'government standards' are 'inadequate'?
- yequalsx 16y ago
  Change government. Of course government can be bad. It can also be good. If light bulbs started exploding and causing harm government agencies would step in and investigate. Legislation may then have to be passed to prevent the issue from re-occurring. Sometimes industry acts without government intervention and government intervention isn't necessary. Government is, in such cases, the regulator of last resort. FDA does screw up big time. It's what happens when their efforts at enforcement are hampered. It's what happens when regulatory capture occurs. It's an example of the necessity for a functioning government that looks after the interests of society.
  - dnautics 16y ago
    Good luck. Bureaucrats are unelected. For example, exactly what has changed at the USDA since the E Coli outbreak? Government isn't 'the regulator of last resort'. In this case, it's suppressing the ability for private monitoring agencies to come into play. Except for a few corner cases, I think it would be incredibly difficult to create a competing, private monitoring agency. Why? Because government regulatory agencies are privy to the money spigot. They can print their own money. And the notion that there will be zero tolerance for regulatory failure is absurd. It's going to happen. Private or not. Here's the difference. If there's a scandal in a private monitoring agency, then there's a good chance that word will spread and nobody will trust it anymore. And someone else will step in. Look man, government can get away with slapping a gps device on a kid car just because he's egyptian - a blatant violation of the rules that it itself wrote. Even after that, nobody is calling for the FBI to be disbanded.

dnautics 16y ago

"Most people can't make an informed decision on what constitutes safe food. Consumers rely on government to have adequate standards that are enforced. Without such standards people would make bad decisions." Bullshit. What government agency prevents us from having exploding lightbulbs. There isn't one. It's done by Underwriter's Laboratory. There is no good reason why we can't have an Underwriter's laboratory for food. Or an underwriter's laboratory for medicines, instead of the FDA. In fact we are seeing en mass rebellion against the USDA (particularly in the organic-certification area) where the USDA is seen as basically an agent that prevents upstart food producers and entrenches big-food interests that can afford to pay for extremely expensive certification. You know what, the FDA screws up big time, too. Remember how we had an e coli outbreak? So what are you going to do when 'government standards' are 'inadequate'?

yequalsx 16y ago
Change government. Of course government can be bad. It can also be good. If light bulbs started exploding and causing harm government agencies would step in and investigate. Legislation may then have to be passed to prevent the issue from re-occurring. Sometimes industry acts without government intervention and government intervention isn't necessary. Government is, in such cases, the regulator of last resort. FDA does screw up big time. It's what happens when their efforts at enforcement are hampered. It's what happens when regulatory capture occurs. It's an example of the necessity for a functioning government that looks after the interests of society.
- dnautics 16y ago
  Good luck. Bureaucrats are unelected. For example, exactly what has changed at the USDA since the E Coli outbreak? Government isn't 'the regulator of last resort'. In this case, it's suppressing the ability for private monitoring agencies to come into play. Except for a few corner cases, I think it would be incredibly difficult to create a competing, private monitoring agency. Why? Because government regulatory agencies are privy to the money spigot. They can print their own money. And the notion that there will be zero tolerance for regulatory failure is absurd. It's going to happen. Private or not. Here's the difference. If there's a scandal in a private monitoring agency, then there's a good chance that word will spread and nobody will trust it anymore. And someone else will step in. Look man, government can get away with slapping a gps device on a kid car just because he's egyptian - a blatant violation of the rules that it itself wrote. Even after that, nobody is calling for the FBI to be disbanded.