And one of them is product safety. Oh, I know it seems that Big Brother has his nose in everything, but many times he does because industry won't fix a problem.
Case in point, antifreeze.
Conventional antifreeze tastes sweet to dogs, cats and other animals. The industry knew about this for years and did nothing. It leaks out of your auto and is lapped up by your dog, or maybe your neighbor's cat and the animal does of kidney failure. Solution? Put some chemical in the antifreeze that repels the animal. Simple, eh? Costly? No. Oh I know it costs something. But do you really believe it could be more than a few pennies?
What brought this up was the rant by one of our local talk radio drive time jocks who was complaining that the state had passed a law mandating that this be done. He's a sometimes libertarian and I agree with him sometimes, but this time he is off the chart wrong. His solution, of course, is to let the market fix the problem. Companies wanting to protect the animals can sell antifreeze with a bittering agent, companies that don't want to, don't.
What's next? Shall we get rid of the FAA? Let the airlines that want air control put their own system in place and pay for it. Those companies that don't want the expense can just fly VFR. Makes sense? No. Of course not.
And meat inspection. Why do it? If a company kills a few hundred consumers, well the survivors can sue. Right? Well, if they have enough money, sure.
I have a libertarian streak in my psyche. But I also have become old enough to know that a large part of that streak is based on the government sticking its nose in things that I don't want to be bothered by. e.g. I have car insurance and have always had car insurance. Why should the government make me prove I have car insurance? Because people lie. I like to drive fast. Why should the government have and enforce speed limits? Because some people drive too fast.
Common sense seems to be as lacking on the libertarian side as it is on the Leftie side.
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Points like that are what stop me from going full on Libertarian. I'm grateful the govt. (supposedly) checks the meat we eat and monitors the smokestacks polluting air. That's a service worth paying for.
ReplyDeleteYet when a govt. gets as corrupted and incompetent as ours, you wonder how effective it all is. I fear what you end up with is legalized poisoning and pollution.
For example, say the govt. sets a limit of "x" steroids/antibiotics/godknowswhat in our meat, and the meatpacking co. is just below that limit. What if limit "x" is too high because the meatpackers gave a fat check to the head of the subcommitee that sets the limit, and people are getting sick? The people getting sick have no recourse because the meatpackers are below the govt. set limit of toxins. I fear that's where we are at right now. Case in point, Cheney letting the energy companies sit on the meetings that set their EPA pollution levels. I'm supposed to believe that's on the up and up? C'mon....
-kdog