According to TPM, Senator Rand Paul is going to come out with a budget proposal that includes $500 billion in cuts. One of his brilliant ideas is to completely eliminate the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
I just read this story at Talking Points Memo regarding a Rand Paul budget plan that he intends to introduce as legislation.
Amongst the ideas that his plan contains for saving $500 billion is this tidbit:
It calls for rescinding all funds to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (that's the agency that offers protection from unsafe cribs and lead paint).
Here we have "rational" objectivist/libertarian thought rearing it's ugly head, courtesy of Mr. Paul.
Yes, corporations don't need no stinkin' regulations. The market itself will presumably protect consumers. Hey, it's not as if there have been incidents like this...
(AP) Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants being sold throughout the United States, an Associated Press investigation shows.
or this...
Coca-Cola is recalling more than 80,000 glasses after tests found the toxic metal cadmium was used in the decoration on the outside of the glass.
The cans, sold in sets of four, were decorated to look like a can of soda -- Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero or Sprite. More than 22,000 sets were sold since March, company officials said.
The recall comes less than six months after McDonald's was forced to recall 12 million Shrek drinking glasses because regulators found they contained cadmium as well. The same company, Arc International, made the recalled "Shrek" glasses and the Coca-Cola glasses.
Oops. Well, I guess we really do have incidents like that. No worry. Once people start dropping like flies, the market will adjust accordingly. Corporations will learn from lost sales that killing their costumers is bad for business.Hey, that approach worked back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, didn't it?
Quite frankly, I wish it were possible for people like Rand Paul to be transported onto "Libertarian World", where they could see what it would be like to become victims of their own philosophy before they had a chance of inflicting it onto the rest of us.
Update: added a link to a dsteffen diary about how things were like back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, in the days before regulation.