I don't like arsenic in my medicine

[anarchistjoe]

So, I get this argument repeatedly when I discuss anarchism with people that don't seem to really have a good grasp on how the market works. It goes something like 'if there was no government all food would be poisoned, all medicine would be poisoned, airplanes would fall out of the sky, etc..." I am sure many of you have heard this before. How do you usually respond? what free market mechanisms could control this? I would like to focus on ensuring the safety of food and medicine in a free market way. 

[JamesP]

There are a couple approaches you could take.  One is to do a little legwork to find examples of a lack of food and drug safety that were caused by current regulation.  You could cite the ever-increasing requirements for drugs to be approved by the FDA and how that is an example of a lack of drug safety as new treatments never see the light of day.  You could talk about the current map of agricultural subsidies and how it completely distorts the price of food in the grocery store.

One thing that I think would be helpful is to keep them trying to answer the question, "How do you know?"  If they say that a state is required to keep food from being poisoned--how do you know?

Ask them how they think a company that poisons its food could possibly stay in business.  Ask them how they might protect the food supply if they couldn't point guns at people.

Most fundamentally, it comes down to the gun.  If people are willing to point a gun at you because you disagree with how they are currently doing things, then that is the most important problem.  It doesn't even matter how food and drugs will be kept safe if you've got a gun to your head.

There are a lot of ways food and drugs might be kept safe without a government--the only limit is the collective imagination of the 7+ billion people we have on this planet.

That is a LOT of power.

[Robert Stempien]

Clearly everyone worrys whether or not their food and drink contain poison, so entrepenuers would have an ncentive on the market to show consumers that their food is more safe then their competiters. There would probably also be a lot of firms forming like consumer report that focus on verifying the safety of the product in question and stamping a sticker of their approval on it. If the firm who does this has a good reputation of never lying and providing regerous saftey tests then consumers will come to trust that sticker alot.

[nathanm]

It's actually not a problem at all.  Without government all the food will be poisoned of course, but all the poisons will stop working too.  So you'll just switch from eating food to eating poisons.  So for example instead of tea and sugar you'll have antifreeze and rat poison, but it will be totally healthy thanks to the whims of evil capitalists finally able to unleash their true will upon mankind.

[Robert Stempien]

 

It's actually not a problem at all.  Without government all the food will be poisoned of course, but all the poisons will stop working too.  So you'll just switch from eating food to eating poisons.  So for example instead of tea and sugar you'll have antifreeze and rat poison, but it will be totally healthy thanks to the whims of evil capitalists finally able to unleash their true will upon mankind.

 

wtf?

[Kawlinz]

 

 

It's actually not a problem at all.  Without government all the food will be poisoned of course, but all the poisons will stop working too.  So you'll just switch from eating food to eating poisons.  So for example instead of tea and sugar you'll have antifreeze and rat poison, but it will be totally healthy thanks to the whims of evil capitalists finally able to unleash their true will upon mankind.

 

wtf?

 

If governement is neccessary to keep capitalists from poisoning our foods, then government is also neccessary to keep capitalists from fooding our poisons, so to speak. Therefore, just eat the poisons that evil capitalists produce. If they can't make healthy food, then they also can't make effective poisons.

[Wesley]

Then of course the capitalists will also need to eat the fooded poison, which will allow at least a certain standard of not having food in the poison or the people could eat what the fat cats eat. After all, we wouldn't want the fat cats to have a heart attack!  (Muse reference, anyone?)