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"In general, private business certainly can't be counted on to act responsibly in terms of the environment and employee welfare."
Can't tell you about the environment, Filtherton, but you're wrong about employee welfare. Back when workers were fungible that might have been true, but I'm an employer (partner in a law firm) and one of the biggest problems we have is finding good people, at all levels of the firm. Once we get them, we would be pretty damn foolish not to treat them well, wouldn't we? And believe me, we're not the only ones.
I'll agree that there are certain things govt should be doing. We probably would disagree at the margins and agree on many things. But you shouldn't assume things about people that yo'ure assuming. Many people handle alcohol responsibly, for instance.
No, I don't want Congress evaluating drugs, number one because thye're not capable, and number two because they can be bought. All I want is that whoever they have evaluating them gets detailed guidance from Congress about what is and is not a valid reason to deny certification. Shouldn't there be easier certification coupled with full disclosure of side effects? If you don't like drug companies, well, one reason only the huge guys can get new drugs through is because the system costs $1 billion per drug now, or some ridiculous number like that.
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