One of the favorite targets of libertarians and "smaller government" arguments is the FDA. The market should, could, and would preserve us from tainted, unsafe, and worthless products, just the way it didn't in the 19th century. Perhaps there's some truth to that, but the store window where the idea is sold doesn't contain a display of all the poisoned, sickened and fleeced consumers waiting to be redeemed or resurrected while the market forces grind on in the darkness of unregulated capitalism.
Of course, the FDA, or what remains of it after years of Republican misrule, can't do much better, it seems, and the free press that's supposed to be an agent of illumination in a libertarian utopia doesn't care to try. Witness today at CNN.com an article telling us that products widely being sold as steroid free, body-building aids do actually contain dangerous synthetic steroids and can, in several ways, kill you. Thanks, CNN.Of course, prominently displayed on the home page is a photo of a grotesquely, steroidal male torso which links to an ad for the very things the FDA is telling people to avoid like the plague they apparently are. "Safe, natural, legal!" Never mind that little liver failure thing.
The solution is clear. We really need to get rid of the FDA and that damned government regulation -- bad for business, don't you know.
(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)
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