Re: virus: Power

John Porter (jporter@btg.com)
Fri, 02 Aug 1996 17:28:30 -0400


> On 30 Jul 96 at 11:04, Richard Brodie wrote:
> > But the US government's big successes have been in legislating that
> > CORPORATIONS do what's good for us. Mandatory nutrition labeling and
> > censorship of cigarette ads are delightful examples with near-100%
> > compliance.

Eric Hardison responded:
> Yes, now the companies tell you that what you're eating is bad for you.
> And people still buy it. People already knew that the bag of chips or
> steak dinner was clogging their arteries, and they didn't care. If the
> point of the nutrition facts was to get Americans to eat better, then it
> failed. Similarly, if the govt. tried to legislate people into being
> vegetarians, meat would be right up their with cuban cigars...

Regardless of what the original intention of such legislation has been,
the real effect of it is to minimize the liabilities of corporations.
So now, when you get yourself addicted to tobacco, you do it knowingly;
"Don't say we didn't warn you!"

-- 
John Porter
jporter@btg.com