From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Fri Jul 05 2002 - 21:02:31 MDT
On Friday, July 05, 2002 12:12 PM Harvey Newstrom
mail@HarveyNewstrom.com wrote:
>> The real problem here is requiring food labels is coercive.
Eliminate
>> that. If consumers insist on knowing what's in the food, then,
chances
>> are, they will provided with such information. However, having the
>> government call the tune is not freedom in action. Nor, given what
we
>> know about politics and history, is it rational.
>
> I don't see forcing corporations to tell the truth about their
products
> as being coercive. It seems that hiding the truth or misleading the
> customer into making choices they don't want is the coercive action.
Initiating force is wrong. If anyone is misleading anyone, there is
always the remedy of the courts -- in an anarchic society, private
courts.
Plus, why would you buy stuff from misleading people -- be they members
of a corporation or your local mom and pop store? Don't you think on a
truly free market, the problem would take care of itself? People who
did not wish to label their products would face skeptical consumers --
and have to sell at a lower price, have a smaller market share, etc.
You are free to do that right now...
Also, don't you already see the result of government labeling in drugs?
It results in the FDA -- that defecation of a regulatory agency --
literally having a deathgrip on what information can or cannot be passed
along.
The current widespread ignorance is fed by government interventions run
amok. Granted, not everyone was a scholar and a scientist before the
Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society, but surely these
ratcheted interventions have tended to increase shortsightedness and
reward irresponsibility both through making long range planning less
tenable (government decrees change at a bureacrats whim) as well as
perpetuating the myth that political appointees and career politicians
know best.
Finally, don't forget your labeling regime is going to be backed,
manned, and enforced by the same people you believe are so stupid as to
need to be led by the hand through life. What do you think the result
will be? Or do you believe angels will land upon Earth and manage
product labeling?
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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