I love China. I really, REALLY love China. Even as the imbeciles of the libertarian right worm their way into the mainstream GOP with their anti-government message, China gives us stark examples, again and again, that not only can corporations not be trusted in any way whatsoever but that the only organization capable of policing their lying, cheating asses is a government agency acting on our behalf.

First there was pet food with poison in it. Then it was tainted milk. Then it was tainted baby food. Now it’s rat meat sold as “lamb:”





Chinese police arrested 63 people in the fake lamb scheme as part of a larger operation to combat an illegal industry of fake, diseased or adulterated meat. Since late January, police have seized 20,000 tons of unsafe meat and broken up 1,721 factories and shops manufacturing and trading in un-inspected meat usually pumped full of illegal preservatives and toxins. One person even died recently after eating illegally-produced lamb riddled with pesticides. Mass illnesses caused by contaminated meat in 2011 is also still fresh in Chinese memory.

But don’t let actual real world, happening-as-we-speak events deter the “free” market!

Though the American food safety framework is currently much stronger than China’s, some lawmakers here are actually pushing to weaken food inspection and regulatory oversight over meat production. Unlike China, foodborne illness in the U.S. does not come from nameless criminals, but rather from powerful companies with huge shares of the market. These companies have actively pushed for weaker regulation even as outbreaks of foodborne illnesses are becoming more common. Republican legislators have complied, gutting food safety programs and the Food and Drug Administration.

The GOP can pretend that they’re “helping” by allowing corporations to make more money but they are deliberately turning a blind eye to the incredible harm corporations will do if given free rein. China is the perfect example and still the GOP pushes for deregulation?

The legal definition of Depraved Indifference:

To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant’s conduct must be ‘so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the defendant’s conduct, not the injuries actually resulting.

Sound familiar?

Right now, there’s a shortage of powdered baby formula in Europe because Chinese parents are refusing to buy the locally produced kind. In fact, the Chinese won’t even buy formula from American companies unless it was produced in America because they know we have safety laws and we enforce them. For now at least.

This is one of the most immediate and dangerous results of the insane right wing march to deregulate everything. Anti-government conservatives and free-market libertarians live in a delusional world where, just because they don’t currently get sick and die from their food and drink, they believe such a thing could never happen in America. They really believe that even with no “Big Brother, over-regulatin’ Gub’mint” to keep the corporations in line, they’d be safe or it will only happen to “other” people. What they fail to understand is that, free of the threat of punishment or even detection, large corporations will do everything possible to maximize profits. They will determine how much the eventual lawsuits will cost and if they’re cheaper than safety measures or selling pure and clean food, they will gladly sell milk adulterated with water. And then add chemicals to disguise it. 54,000 babies were hospitalized and six died in China in 2008 because of this.

Do we really need that to happen here before the easily manipulated puppets on the right realize that maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t trust corporations not to poison us for profit or sell us rat meat while calling it “lamb?” I’d prefer not to find out the hard way and anyone with half a brain would agree.

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