Put your trust in the government

How often are we told that we can't trust private businesses to produce safe products, because they're only interested in increasing their profit? The word greed is usually applied liberally in such reports. We're told that only the government can be trusted with our safety, so we have innumerable government agencies who issue regulations, perform inspections, and levy heavy fines when infractions are found.

Of course, all that work done by the agencies increases the cost of everything we buy, but we're assured that the results are that we're far safer We put our trust in the government... they're not driven by that ugly old bottom line profit.

So... how do the agencies perform for our safety? Here's an example - The General Accounting Office was asked to investigate the food safety procedures used by the Agriculture Department for food distributed through the federal school lunch and breakfast program, which deals with 30 million school children. This was the result:

Federal authorities failed to tell schools about recalls of potentially tainted peanut products and canned vegetables, and cafeterias may have unknowingly served them to children.

They knew about problems (which is good) but they didn't pass the information along to the schools (which is not good). It really doesn't help to know about problems if you don't tell the people getting the food.

Understand now... this wasn't a one-time problem, this was a problem with their procedures that might have been happening for a long time, and might still be happening if someone hadn't asked for an investigation. In fact, until they finish "working on new recall policies" it might be happening today.

If you can't trust the government to send safe food to the kids, what can you trust them to do?

If that problem had occured with a private business, what do you think the result would be? Major fines? Losing a government contract? Business folding? Jobs lost? What do you think happened within the Agriculture Department? You think heads rolled? I doubt it... they're probably government union employees, just doing their job. I suspect it will be business as usual. They're really responsible to nobody. If your child got sick as a result, could you sue? Sorry, can't sue the government.

I love the response from the Agriculture Secretary, who said... safety is of utmost importance and his department is working on new recall policies.

Safety is of utmost importance? Are you reassured?