Topic: Immigration and trade
Mad Cow Madness and the State Monopoly on Regulation A move last Friday by the Justice Department yet again illustrates that the Bush administration is anything but small government, anything but free market, anything but conservative.by Joshua Snyder
(Libertarian)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
In the midst of the latest hitch to arise in the negotiations for a so-called free so-called trade so-called agreement (to borrow the felicitous phrasing Malcolm X used when speaking of the "so-called Negro so-called Problem") between South Korea and the United States, Bush's Justice Department has derailed a free-market initiative that might have put South Korean consumers at ease and helped open a new market for American cattle ranchers.
The South Koreans, to be sure, have worked themselves up into a fit of mass hysteria over the issue. Online fearmongering and pseudoscientific television reports have fueled protests ten of thousands strong calling for the South Korean government to halt the planned importation of American beef. The real impetus behind the leftist nationalist protesters' demands is the same economic nationalism and protectionism championed by Pat Buchanan in America. Misguided as the protesters may be, their actions pale in comparison to those of the Bush Justice Department.
"The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meat packers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease" (Government asks court to block wider testing for mad cow). You read that right; the Bush administration is trying to block meat packers from ensuring the quality of their product. They want the Agriculture Department to maintain its monopoly on regulation.
It is absurd and immoral to suggest that a business has no right to take whatever measures it deems necessary to ensure the quality of its own products to satisfy its customers. If Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants "to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers in Japan and elsewhere," who's to stop them in a free market? Regulation should be privatized, not monopolized by the State.
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2008 Joshua Snyder, all rights reserved.
Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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Posted By: Matthew Kilbourne
Date: 2008-05-16 13:34:03
Before the discovery of BSE in 2003, the US cattle industry was fully aware of the potential problem posed by BSE to the US cattle industry - particularly exports. Rather than opt for adopting emerging technologies and testing systems for identifying BSE and containing the problem, industry (including ranchers and processors) chose to "cowboy" it. The result? Overnight US cattlemen and industry lost between $3.2 to $4.7 Billion in export markets.
Free marketers love to tout the ability of industry to "do the right thing", and self-regulate. Unfortunatley, reality rarely bears this out.
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2008 Joshua Snyder, all rights reserved.