The nature of government agencies:
What would you think of someone who said, "I would like you to have a cat provided it barked"? Yet your statement that you favor an FDA provided it behaves as you believe desirable is precisely equivalent. The biological laws that specify the characteristics of cats are no more rigid than the political laws that specify the behavior of government agencies once they are established. The way the FDA now behaves, and the adverse consequences, are not an accident, not a result of some easily corrected human mistake, but a consequence of its constitution in precisely the same way that a meow is related to the constitution of a cat. As a natural scientist, you recognize that you cannot assign characteristics at will to chemical and biological entities, cannot demand that cats bark or water burn. Why do you suppose the situation is different in the social sciences?
Who's to blame for pollution:
In the case of pollution, the devil blamed is typically "business," the enterprises that produce goods and services. In fact, the people responsible for pollution are consumers, not producers. They create, as it were, a demand for pollution. People who use electricity are responsible for the smoke that comes out of the stacks of the generating plants. If we want to have the electricity with less pollution, we shall have to pay, directly or indirectly, a high enough price for the electricity to cover the extra costs. Ultimately, the cost of getting cleaner air, water, and all the rest must be borne by the consumer. There is no one else to pay for it. Business is only an intermediary, a way of coordinating the activities of people as consumers and producers.
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