OK, I guess I am jumping in too.
As for the tobacco industry, yes, NOW there isnt a person in the US that doesnt know it is bad for them. But many people that are dying now or in the recent past, are the ones that were hooked many years back, when the tobacco industry was denying ill effects, and supressing negative evidence.
Ditto Microsoft, trying to squash the competition through underhanded means.
We as consumers should have the right of free informed choices, emphasis on informed.
In both cases, if free market and free information policies were not being corrupted, the gov would not have had to interfere in the first place. It was industry's misuse of power that necessitated the government stepping into the fray.
(I believe the gun situation is a different case altogether. I think it is as ridiculous to hold the gun manufacturer responsible for a shooting death as it would be to hold the knife manufacturers responsible for a stabbing death.)
That said, I agree with much of what you say re government. We need to take responsibility for our own actions, which includes maintaining our rights as a people to fair market practices, in the cases in point.
In this light, we need to watch the government as much if not more than the corporations themselves. The government's corruptibility and misuse of power has much farther ranging consequences for us all.
Hope this limb is sturdy enough for us all <ggg>. |
