Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - Re: [internetworkers] capitalism not stultifying restaurants

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: James Dasher <jdasher AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: "Internetworkers:http"@metalab.unc.edu://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/ <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] capitalism not stultifying restaurants
  • Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:44:56 -0400


On Oct 9, 2004, at 12:31 PM, B wrote:

Don said:

<...>
Lost in the fast food pessimism, is one of the best benefits...clean
restaurants where the water won't give you dysentery. Before chains, and
uber-competition, there was no telling what you might get in a restaurant
you weren't familiar with. <...>

**Government regulations** are what make it safe to eat in a strange restaurant without worrying overmuch about TB, dysentery, etc., etc. **Government regulations** allow us to sip municipal water from the tap without fear, purchase raw foods from unknown markets with impunity, drive over bridges without thinking twice, et cetera.

Government. Regulations.

That's one way to solve the problem, but not the only way.

Government regulation did not foster the spread of bottled water. Before the Clean Water Act passed in the mid-1970's, people in this country weren't getting dysentery from the local Checker's, or Big Boy, or McDonald's.

South of the border, in the heavily-regulated Mexican market, people are still getting dysentery from drinking the water. FSRs are hardly paragons of environmental virtue, and they had lots of government regulation.

Corruption is as prevalent in government as it is in private enterprise. The difference, though, lies in alternatives.

There's no alternative to government regulators. There are alternatives to bad - unhealthy, corrupt, etc. - private enterprises. If somebody dies because of a mistake in the enforcement of government regulations, the corrupt or incompetent government regulator may get fired or go to jail, but that somebody's relatives can't even sue for reparations because of sovereign immunity. If you die from an unsanitary meal at your local greasy spoon, the owner will have hell (and lawyers) to pay - and possibly a permanent "closed" sign on the door.

--
James Dasher
misterdasher dot com
IM misterdasher





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page