Oh please. Priests, even the most corrupt, don’t live off the immiseration of millions. Hedge fund managers derive power and money directly from the expropriation of the labor of the poor.
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“no more than”
If the firm is run by humans who think they can get away with it, most… The tainted milk scandals of the long past that left people dead were done for a quick buck and most of the perps did get away with it until regulators started testing milk for adulteration. After that the milk supply was safe and people stopped dying.
If someone stands to make enough that they can cash out on the profits of one big fraud, some people would commit that fraud. If someone is desperate for money and is in a position to profit off fraud they will (as was the case with many small-time milk adulterators).
Much human thinking revolves around short term gain and immediate gratification. The motivation for private gain doesn’t guarantee rational action and never has.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
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Did you seriously ask that question? Okay, I’ll assume you did. Let’s see, the entire oil industry, coal industry, nuclear industry, millions of manufacturing firms all over the world that pollute the environment and poison people in myriad ways from the earliest tanneries to the latest “clean” manufacturing facilites of GE. The entire Hudson river was polluted with PCB’s for many decades by that same company that profited handsomely from the pollution it created.
The idea that your “free markets” could even exist, let alone provide solely positive benefits to society, is a solipsistic and reality-denying argument much-loved by those who wish to dismiss the problems of society as simple fixes if only the fools ruining things would understand the simple truth you, in your deep wisdom, see so clearly. Of course the answer to every “free market” failure is ever more “free” markets! The world that libertarians like you would create is more akin to Sauron’s Mordor than any paradise. Libertarian “freedom” devolves quickly into “might makes right” and that freedom you so cherish will only be had by those at the top of the pile. “But you can always refuse to support the capitalist oligarch by withholding your labor” you retort. Yes, when they own the land you live on, the food you eat and the shelter you live in, you will have all sorts of opportunity to say “no”. All sorts.
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I see, so because our food safety monitoring system, which is notoriously underfunded, underpowered and underemployed, has failed to stop every poisonous foodstuff from making its way to supermarket shelves it has failed and must be done away with. Now that’s some clear thinking! Happy Thanksgiving to you, and lets hope that once we do away with food safety inspections you will survive until the next one.
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Ding! However, I would really love to know how much of the silly pro-capitalist comments I read on the web are astroturfed. Something tells me its less than I hope. Neoliberal propaganda is so successful because it very effectively turns people who should be fighting for their own rights into puppets for plutocrats. Hell, its so successful that when I type “neoliberal” into any comment section on the web its underlined in red, as if to say that particular devil doesn’t even really exist.
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What right have I to say your scheme won’t work, when nobody has ever been dumb enough to try it? I guess you’ve got me there, mate!
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Good point. If only there was one glaringly obvious example of such a firm, indeed industry, that was notoriously profitable for decades and created massive empires, yet was proven beyond all reasonable doubt to be knowingly poisoning and killing consumers of it’s product.
Thinking… thinking… no nothings coming to mind. Looks like your point is iron clad and I’ll have to completely re-evaluate my views on the need for any form of government regulation.
Nice job!
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If free markets mean markets are deified then free speech means speech is deified.
If the Left for or against the War on Some Drugs this week?
You should be a bit more specific about the milk scandal you refer to since you offer that testing made the milk safe. Googling on milk scandal–or even better, “food adulteration”, shows that this sort of problem is ongoing, even in spite of regulation.
I don’t disagree with your point that “if someone stands to make enough…someone will commit fraud”. But even that is a concession against the point you appear to try to make.
Regulations can certainly be good, but we should not try to pretend they accomplish things that they don’t. The down side to regulations is that, at least in the US, many regulations are put in place by lobbyist hoping to protect the established businesses. The regulations are often just big levers that big corporations pull in order to keep disruptive business models or small start-ups from gaining a foothold in the market.
Examples? Beer, Internet, Radio/Broadcast Television/Movies/Cable, Telephone, Health Care, agriculture, mining, oil, most industries involving large-scale pollution. Really, just name a regulatory agency, find the congressmen most influential to that agency, check his corporate connections, and there you will find the companies being aided by the regulations.
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Regulations aren’t wars. I think that the left in general has promoted the idea of other drugs being treated like alcohol and tobacco - legal but regulated.
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Sorry I was vague. I was thinking of the Swill Milk scandals. Not much time to research a better reference now, but you can read a little about the history here:
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There seems to be a stub for the Latin version here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_lt.html
As far as I can tell, Fox News has swept this one under the rug. I’d love to hear what their resident priest, Father Jonathan Morris, has to say about it.
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Plus, nice Hindu thingie, there.
Personally, I would absolutely assume any decriminalisation of any currently illegal recreational drugs would come with strict regulation. So I’m completely fucking 100% consistent on that, thanks for asking.
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You know who else evades taxes?
Brilliant. Never realized that before. Bravo!
