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The rules are the rules

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by The Big Ragu, Jan 30, 2014.

  1. joe

    joe Active Member

    So the health department is going to cost this little angel a scholarship to Le Cordon Bleu. Fockers.
     
  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I will see your one outlier and raise you a bunch of other outliers. What a fun game!

    http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Ex-health-inspectors-charged-in-S-F-bribe-scheme-2402994.php

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-29/news/chi-former-city-health-inspector-maryanne-koll-gets-30-months-for-bribery-scheme-20120829_1_city-health-inspector-bribery-scheme-state-or-city-certificates

    http://eater.com/archives/2012/05/02/florida-health-inspectors-busted-for-taking-bribes.php

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/3-charged-fraud-bribery-schemes-eatery-grades-article-1.1468744

    Buyer beware, indeed.

    If you are relying on a health inspector to ensure that there are no rat droppings at the bakery down the street, you may or may not be getting the nannying you think protects you. ... you are paying more, though, and getting fewer choices because of the barriers it throws up to people who just want to supply something for which there is demand.
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Those health inspectors being arrested is just proof that the laws are working and the system is OK.

    At least, that's what you tell us it is whenever a Wall Street type is hauled off in handcuffs.
     
  4. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    So just forget any regulations of rat droppings. Let the free market handle the situation.

    After you eat enough cinnamon rolls sprinkled with rat shit, you'll vote with your feet.
     
  5. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    Well, pretty much all of us have gut responses and then work out the logic needed to justify them. Thanks for being up-front about it.
     
  6. daemon

    daemon Well-Known Member

    The argument I was refuting was your contention that health regulations "serve no reasonable purpose." The link was meant to show that one of the purposes they serve is the detection of bakeries infested with shit from birds and rodents. "Preventing the commingling of bird and rodent shit with foodstuffs" seems like a purpose grounded in reason. I did not attempt to make the case that the number of legitimate food safety concerns detected by health inspectors dwarfs the number of crimes or unethical activities committed by health inspectors. Prevalence of mentions in media reports would suggest the latter as the outlier, but I don't expect you to accept that as a scientific measure. In fact, I don't expect you to accept any logical conclusion that does not jibe with your world view, so I'll just close by saying that if you really do think that food safety laws are meaningless impositions that leave the majority of society with a net deficit in the happiness/well-being department, and eradicating them is your solution to the overreaction of one bored health department official (who, nevertheless, taught our young entrepreneur a lesson about one of the less desirable aspects of business ownership in the United States), then I'd suggest that you take a quick poll of your fellow Americans to find out their thoughts on the abolition of all food safety laws. I think that you would discover -- and I stress that this is only a guess -- that you are the outlier.
     
  7. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Yeah, back when men were men you just ate your sausages and didn't worry too much if a human eyeball was sticking out of it. Then the guvvmint started sticking its thumbs into everything.
     
  8. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I am going to echo Ragu here in saying that the regulations (or their application) in this instance are silly. No one is being misled here -- all buyers know perfectly well what's been done and where it's being done. Further, it's not like there's been this risk that suddenly has been removed. The young lady in question is absolutely free to simply bake cupcakes in exactly the same kitchen in exactly the same way ... and give 'em away to exactly the same people.

    Perhaps Ragu (and others, including me) are outliers re: regulation in general. You can't deny, however, that at least some skepticism is warranted. Take a peak at those license requirements for floral arrangers in Louisiana. Read up on how, until 2010, you had to be licensed to label yourself an "interior designer" in Florida. Somebody's being served by those requirements, but my spidey sense tells me it ain't the public.
     
  9. daemon

    daemon Well-Known Member

    DQ - Thing is, you probably aren't outliers with regard to regulation in general. Ask people if they'd like to deal with more or less regulation in their lives, I'd guess a significant majority would choose the latter. Conduct your poll outside a DMV and the results might be unanimous. The point I was making is that the vast majority of laws that we have on the books are there because, at some point, somebody in the general public said, "Why, there oughta be a law!" And eventually enough somebodies agreed with them, and there became a law. Or a regulation. And you are absolutely correct. The somebodies being served by some of these requirements are those who have the money to buy the clout to curry the favor. And how can we attempt to combat that problem? Attempt to limit money's influence on government. And how do we do that? Regulation! And we're back to where we began. It's the irony inherent in complaints that contrast our government to some free market ideal. Our government is A PRODUCT OF THE FREE MARKET. Our government officials aren't just sitting around thinking of ways they can be GOVERNMENTY in order to control our lives, they are serving at the behest of the people who elect them, who are the people who have the most MONEY, who are the people who dominate the FREE MARKET. The free market utopia is just as implausible as the communist/socialist utopia, and for the same reason: human fucking nature.
     
  10. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    Or not enough.
     
  11. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Where's Dr. D when you need him?
     
  12. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    I know at Missouri farmer's markets, stuff made at home just had to have a little warning label that said "This food was not made in a commercial kitchen" or something like that. I survived.
     
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