A Day In The Life Of Joe Conservative | 53 comments (53 topical, 0 hidden)
Dead from Meat? (none / 1)

Well, of course a bunch of dead customers will be bad business for a meat-packing company! 

I just don't want it to be MY KIDS who are shitting out their guts and dying from dehydration due to Ecoli because one of the most technologically advanced nations on the planet was waiting for market forces to sort things out.

AND, the reality is, the news cycle that featured my dead kids would be over in about 24 hours, the meat industry could afford ads to polish their image, as well as a hefty contribution to politicians who would continue to let them run a dirtier meat packing plant than...(there was a Tenderloin District rave joke brewing here - which I'll skip).

The meat packers will do all that while I'm deciding whether to pay my rural power plant loan, or medical insurance for the next time my surviving family decides to risk eating meat. 

by gdoud on 03/03/2008 10:35:15 PM EST

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Exactly (none / 1)
That's the achilles heel of the libertarian, free market will solve all problems ideology. 

The fact is, it's all well and good unless you or *your friends and family* are the ones that are injured or killed by unsafe food or other products. The whole "market will sort it out" line is much less compelling in that context.

Not to mention the fact that a system that relies SO heavily on individual responsibility and knowledge means people would be even MORE reliant on the media.  And the media relies on advertising revenue, often from large corporations that don't appreciate stories that might damage their bottom line.

Uh-oh, but who's going to stop the media from being influenced in such a way?  That would require (yeah, you guessed it) government intervention, which doesn't exist in libertarian/conservative fantasy land.

by Tom Hanc on 03/03/2008 10:51:13 PM EST

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A Day In The Life Of Joe Conservative | 53 comments (53 topical, 0 hidden)