North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Amlie & Hayas <tamlie@netscape.com>]

Apologies for hurtling further off-topic with this, but this has been 
bugging me.....


> Someone wrote:
> "The most effective tool to address the various negative impacts of
> competition driving production costs down to the lowest common denominator
> is regulation and enforcement.  .......
> ultimately voluntary programs are not sufficient because low price outweighs
> consumer concerns--one physically can't educate one's self about even a
> fraction of the environmental and moral aspects of one's purchases. And some
> (read most) consumers want the lowest possible price even knowing the issues
> involved because they don't believe that their own behavior makes any
> difference.

I prefer to make my OWN choices, thank you very much.  The last thing 
in the world I want is someone else, much less a petty government 
bureaucrat or idealogue, making my moral and economic choices for me, 
or limiting my choices.  I can't think of a single person on this 
planet to whom I would delegate the authority to make moral and 
economic decisions on my behalf.  When I was a little boy my mother 
and father guided me in making my decisions.  Now, as an adult, I do 
it myself and live with the consequences.

I too have many ideas and standards which I think everyone else 
should follow.  The world would be wonderful if everyone did what I 
said.  I'm not about to suggest that other people be forced to follow 
those ideas.


Tom Amlie