Economic Meltdown (seconda parte)

[kandrathe]

Tell me, would you also be so lenient with ivory smugglers?

I would judge the cases on their merits. The little old lady who unwittingly buys a piano with ivory keys, is different than someone involved in bringing poached elephant tusks to market. The Norris case was not such a good example of a blithely innocent wrong-doer , so much as it is one of arbitrary justice and punishment. Norris was not involved in plundering the fauna of Peru, but rather the technicality of buying a CITES protected species from an unlicensed Peruvian greenhouse.

As for legalization of Phragmipedium peruvianum, check out the Wikipedia. "CITES-legitimate plants, both young and adult size, are now increasingly available commercially, thanks to the very good efforts of the Peruvian government in licensing the two nurseries to enable this to happen." The error was not "protection" of a rare wild orchid, but rather the licensing of the greenhouse that grew it.

"{Manuel Arias} Arias, 70, was one of three Peruvian growers with permission to cultivate endangered and newly discovered orchids from recently deforested areas. He apologized in a letter to the judge asking for mercy and noting his “sincere” conservation efforts."

Once in awhile, the guard dog arbitrarily bites to show it has dangerous teeth. Fear him.

You mean for selling health-risk foodstuffs WITHOUT A PERMIT. Such permits might be redundant in your world of smart and responsible entrepreneurs, but not in mine.

Your spin in that statement defines your entire post. In your world, farmers and other producers need a license from the State in order to market their goods. The CPSIA of 2008 prohibitively requires that all small manufacturers, including home based (cottage industry) must submit each component to rigorous lab testing to ensure it's safety. This is a world of State control over the freedom of citizens to live their lives. Freedom is exchanged for protection. You might be fine with that, but I'm not. I don't want to live in a padded cell, made perfectly safe by the over reach of the State.

Health risk is certainly in the eye of the beholder. The natural foods people would have a different opinion of what is a dangerous food, where the corporate farm cartel monopoly (enforced by government) place hazardous food in our grocery stores.

The "responsible entrepreneurs" is a bonus, however obviously it is consumer choice which is being crushed. The consumers are being denied (protected) from a choice which the government has decided is too risky. The sellers are not attempting to hoodwink the consumers. The consumers know full well what they are buying.

It's the same mindset that protects us from choosing to use tobacco, alcohol, fatty foods, or a myriad of other products deemed hazardous by the State. What is telling about the State approach in both the Norris, and Rawesome foods cases, was that the arrests were made with "a multi-agency SWAT-style armed raid". It's the same federal jack-booted thuggery that resulted in the tragedies at Waco and Ruby Ridge.