Who will be the new Upton Sinclair? Will we notice? Is it more convenient to just die?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Upton Sinclair wrote " The Jungle" an insider look at the meat industry in the early 20th century - which caused such a wave of revulsion at meat -packing practices that a government entity was set up to protect American Consumers.

Everything old is new again. We can thank Reagan for de-regulation and the increase in e-coli, salmonella, etc. that we find rife in our national and local news reports. Turn in your peanut butter. Turn in your cantelopes. Turn in your scallions. Turn in your hamburger. But don't worry. These industries can regulate themselves.

Of course the same rules apply for Big Pharma. Don't worry, they'll run the tests and the evaluations and the approvals and the laws and the oversight. Very efficient. No problem.

Do you actually believe that?

Do you think lobbyists should write the laws and regulations and control oversight of their own industries? Should the so-called oversighters (Congress) be allowed to be hired 20 minutes later by the industries they formerly watchdogged (laugh laugh laugh)Who could have a problem with that? Won't deaths be worked out by efficiencies of the market? What are a few deaths, after all, if the stock rises and the upper tier is compensated handsomely? Who could have a problem with that?

[AX10]

1. Reagan was one of the worse things that ever happened to America.

[keepCAblue]

4. Yes. "Who Killed the Electric Car" had some harsh criticism of Reagan. And Bush (big surprise)

If you haven't seen it, do. It'll piss you off even more than you are now.

[AX10]

5. I saw it.

[Taxloss]

2. This is an excellent book in the Upton Sinclair vein:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Work-Life-Low-pay-Britain/dp/0747564159

Hard Work, by Polly Toynbee. Really lifts the lid on the back-breaking conditions some people work in.

Toynbee is no Sinclair though. And it's UK, not USA.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Not to throw a wrench in your machine, but...

food poisoning like e. coli, and salmonella, etc. has been going down, not up.

This recent stuff is just media hype.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. please share your sources

"going down not up". I'd love to know that the incidents were on the downside.

[WinkyDink]

10. Poster might mean this, but it's from 2004:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_041405_02/index.asp

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. This is exactly what I am talking about

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x230502

Our government abrogates its responsibility.

No doubt to turn over these responsibilities to "private labs" Accountable to no one and proably owned by special interests.

[David Zephyr]

8. Well, they would have to be willing to go to jail like Upton did.

I don't think we have an Upton yet. I can wish though.

[WinkyDink]

9. Don't forget your spinach.