Re: I thought of an initialy regulated industry!... (fwd)

Forwarded message:

> Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 11:40:34 -0700
> From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
> Subject: Re: I thought of an initialy regulated industry!...

> Observe that the level of harm is approximately proportional
> to the level of government regulation.

Please be so kind as to demonstrate by example why you believe that by
de-regulating the food industry, for example, we would recieve better
quality foodstuffs? Without regulation why would these companies quit mixing
their products and making better systems of quality control so that the
cases of E. Coli for example would decrease? Why is it that the number of
deaths in this country from salmonella and related food diseases have
*decreased* since the industry was regulated in the early 1920's when the
problem (people getting sick or dying from adulterated foodstuffs) was
at its peak?

Just look at the current issues related to non-pasteurized fruit juice
prodcts for a current example of the consequences of free-market economics
lack of regulation and by extension responsibility and the consequences
thereof.

> You presuppose that government officials will be more
> virtuous than private individuals.  This is obviously
> unlikely, since they have less reason to fear retribution
> than private individuals.

It's the private companies fearing retribution from the government, not the
end user. Your reasoning is faulty.

In an industry that is completely unregulated by anyone other than the
consumer and the producer the consumer will be taken advantage of. The
reason is that there is no real-world market force that will force
compliance. Now some are going to scream that the consumer will, the problem
is that the consumer is denied the information about/from the producer they
require in order to make the reasoned judgement.

The bottem line as to why free-market economies don't work is that it isn't
in the producers best interest to have a educated consumer. They might buy
somebody elses product or start their own company. Both of those are bad for
profits.

Free-market mavens forget that producers are just as greedy and corrupt as
everyone else, there is no fair competition in an unregulated market given
the pshychological make up of human beings.


    ____________________________________________________________________

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At 4:01 PM -0500 10/4/98, Jim Choate wrote:
>Forwarded message:
>> Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 11:40:34 -0700
>> From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
>> Subject: Re: I thought of an initialy regulated industry!...
>cases of E. Coli for example would decrease? Why is it that the number of
>deaths in this country from salmonella and related food diseases have
>*decreased* since the industry was regulated in the early 1920's when the
>problem (people getting sick or dying from adulterated foodstuffs) was
>at its peak?

	Freon, or rather cheap refridgeration.


--
petro@playboy.com----for work related issues. I don't speak for Playboy.
petro@bounty.org-----for everthing else.      They wouldn't like that.
                                              They REALLY
Economic speech IS political speech.          wouldn't like that.

>From Jim Choate:

: The bottem line as to why free-market economies don't work is that it isn't
: in the producers best interest to have a educated consumer.  They might buy
: somebody elses product or start their own company. Both of those are bad for
: profits.
:
: Free-market mavens forget that producers are just as greedy and corrupt as
: everyone else, there is no fair competition in an unregulated market given
: the pshychological make up of human beings.
........................................................................................


Free market economices don't "work", simply because they are run by humans, who regularly suffer
psychological breakdowns, envy, and mistakes of judgement, not to mention disreputable marketing
departments.   Regulated economies, however, are run by government drones, and are therefore perfect
vehicles which, with unfailing success, make all of their captive customers happy.

Everyone knows this, as we witness the apparent success of all those regulated economies overseas
which outshine the U.S. by three (maybe four) orders of magnitude.  No one over there envies the
U.S. productivity and standard of living, and they never are moved to leave and come live over here,
to give up the benefits which extreme regulation confers upon them, in place of the (admittedly
mixed) free-market fiasco which operates over here, where all things are uncertain and frighteningly
unpredictable.

In fact, many people become so disgusted with the monopolies and disfunctional liberty which exists
here, that they regularly expatriate to go live in places like Sweden, Germany, even Canada, where
they have the peace of mind and assurance that State coercion will provide for their every need  -
in a most efficient, timely, prompt, and user-friendly manner.

They never have to worry about who has more or less, who is better or worse, or who knows better
than anyone what is best for everyone.  It's all been pre-established and exists incontrovertibly in
their national consumer database.

    ..
Blanc