ACORN

[eppie]

So, if I understand that correctly, you don't see at all how any person could or even should take anything other than price and quality into consideration on purchase decisions? :unsure:

I quite agree on the topic of laws, regulation and enforcement. If there is a way to cheat and win, it will be used - that is part of the human condition. But it is equally true that you, as an individual, need not support those who do. You can become informed and you can make your own choices. The spectrum of human behaviour includes altruism too. You don't have to resign yourself to the lowest common denominator (or the lowest bidder).

If you feel powerless and surrender to 'the enormity of the problem', then you damn well are powerless. But you are choosing that; don't try to claim that it is inevitable.

There is here also the whole thing of mass psychology (or whatever it is called) which is the reason that free market economy without any regulations is not possible (if you want to create a sustainable system).
If you ask people iwhat they think about bio-industry 90 % says it is bad, if you ask them if they want to pay 20 % extra for their meat and milk if it comes from a non-bioindustry source still 60 % says yes. The percentage that actually does do this (pay a bit more for an 'honest product') will be more in the order of 25 %.
(no I don't have a link for these data, they are educated guesses). In our society where you can buy stuff without having to see where it came from, how it is produced etc. it is very easy just to close your eyes, and prducers of things will not tell you the negative impact their product has....even when you ask them. And because people have enough to worry about (making a living, taking care of your children, going on hoiday etc.) these things just slip through. Only problem is, if nobody ever cares things go wrong.
We have been talking about child labour or poisonous trash being send to development countries, but other things are of course greenhouse effect, overfishing the oceans, registering as a voter under a false name in multiple places. These things need to be regulated, if you want to call this socialism, fine, but it is necesarry.

Why do you want to put a criminal in jail? He did something wrong, the effect (robbery, abuse, murder) was directly visible, so we decide he is going to be put in jail (to protect the rest of use, to scare off other criminals, revenge or for whatever reason). The mass psychology thing in these big issues is based on the fact hat effect are not directly visible (if you drive an SUV you don't see the temperature in yur house rise directly, if you eat tuna you don't see that the tuna population is a fraction of what it used to be and most of the tuna are much smaller than they used to be). Still it is criminal, or at least wrong to continue, so people or government need to regulate.