Of Meat and Myth - Upton Sinclair "The Jungle"

http://www.mackinac.org/4084

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Upton
• Sinclair
• Jungle
• Meat
• Inspection
• Myths
• Regulation
• FDA
• Act
• 1906

[twinpeninsulas]

it was the early 20th century. everything was horrendous. the rich were greedy assholes and the poor were stomped on. probably the worst time to be alive in this country.

and the mackinac center for public policy are basically a republican mouthpiece. im ashamed this group is based in my state. the "government inspectors" were in the pay of armour and the other billionaire packers

[fringeelements]

As usual, no arguments, just vague assertions. And an assertion that the Mackinac center is somehow biased, so you can dismiss what is said without even addressing it.

I suspect the only reason you agree that this was all a racket is because ideological socialists like Sinclair and Kolko say it is. If it were just libertarians saying it you'd probably be licking the state's butthole on this too, because that's your default, because you're a zealot for the status quo.

[BeauJames59]

If this piece wasn't ridiculous enough on the surface, it comes from a blog in which the original Thanksgiving is portrayed as an example of profit motive.

[fringeelements]

@BeauJames59 Right, the change in property norms from communal to individualistic resulted in a 180 in productivity, this is established fact, not just a portrayal.

[BeauJames59]

Now that Greenspan's worship of the fatally flawed Ayn Rand has wreaked havoc on our economy, Market Fundamentalism can finally be thrown on the trash heap of history along with Historical Materialism. Of course Its adherents will be spewing its empty rhetoric even in the breadlines it created.

[fringeelements]

@BeauJames59 The federal reserve is an example of state intervention, nobody who supports the federal reserve can be said to support free markets. I have a video here called "the business cycle" which explains how the artificial expansion of credit, which central banks do, causes an overinvestment boom and then a bust.

State intervention has increased steadily from 1913 to today, and the result has been increasing chaos that comes from arbitrary and unregulated state action.

[PanzerDivisionBOM]

@BeauJames59

How do you reconcile a government monopoly on the provision of currency, rampant inflationism, easy credit policies and several thousands of pages of financial controls on trade, money and banking with the free market? Even you must admit how ridiculous that sounds, just on the face of it.

Even a quick browse on Wikipedia reveals that the Federal Reserve was created and granted special powers by an Act of Congress, and that the chairman is appointed politically.

[laroger0]

As the song by Tower of Power says... "Can't stand the slaughter, but still I eat the meat."

[spec24]

Xexixk, when the govt is in league with the corporations and ultimately has power over them, like in the US, that is much closer to socialism.

[spec24]

Wonderful. Keep up the good work.

[xexixk]

@vspqbd LOL So a war on behalf of a corporation to help them get access to or control of resources is a socialist war? That makes no sense. Socialism doesn't = collusiton of business and government. Corporatism yes. Socialism no.

[vspqbd]

@xexixk

Yes.

[xexixk]

@vspqbd Is it a "socialist" war if it is a war as the result of government collusion with big business in order to gain access to or control of some natural recource which those businesses will then profit from? Read War is a Racket by Gen. Smedley Butler

[FletchforFreedom]

@BeauJames59 Since, of course, Greenspan was a central banker (not following Rand by any stretch of the imagination) and, as anyone with even the most tenuous grasp of economics (to you: "other people") the current economic crisis was CAUSED by the central bank, not "Market Fundamentalism", perhaps you'd like to make at least an attempt to educate yourself (about the failure of colonial communalism for example) for maing yourself look so incompetent. Clearly, looks are not always deceiving.