Conspiracy Theories

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

It's up to consumers to look at the nutritional info sheets (which I do think places should provide).
...
I don't need some "watchdog" trying to sway me one way or the other.

The 2nd statement rather contradicts the first, doesn't it? Left to their own devices, it's unlikely that fast food restaurants would willingly make nutritional information available, it's just not good business. So you're clearly okay with some level of wathdoggery, you just draw the line differently than other people as to what's considered an acceptable level vs. over-protectiveness.

"Evil" is a loaded word that doesn't add much to rational conversation, so I won't label, especially in any sort of blanket way, corporations as "evil". On the other hand, have no problem making the observation that, left unchecked, a lot of unsavory things can easily be justified by the profit motive. I'm okay with some "watchdog" taking the time to make sure there's a good chance that the meat I buy in the supermarket isn't going to be infected (not that the FDA is a perfect system, but I'm grateful for every effort made). I'm okay with some "watchdog" making sure that I can buy car seat for my child with some reasonable assurance that it's not going to fail in a fender bender. And I'm NOT okay with leaving that assurance to experience and market forces when "market forces" means, "the car seat that contributed to the most infant deaths gets fewer future sales."

Of course none of this should diminish the role of personal responsibility. But to say that the entire onus is on individuals and whether they educate themselves ignores the reality that our ability to educate ourselves depends in part on corporations' willingness to participate in said education, something that is often counter to their overriding goal of maximizing profit.