Konrad Switters
May 1, 2002

Help! Help! We're under attack! A Texas cracker is at the helm of this country and he's about to kill us all just for a few greenbacks! It's a suicide mission to be sure! But out of the goodness of his heart, you won't die right away; that would be too much to hope for. Instead, you'll have to suffer the indignation of listening to this pure bred Washington thespian talk about how clean our air is going to be after the free market is done with it.

The same government that until recently let our "free market" have its way with airport security [we can see how well that worked out] has now trusted this same economic mechanism to save our planet from death by pollution. Yes, yes. You heard right. CNN reported that Earth Day was cancelled this year:

"The Republican administration has countered that Bush's plan will be effective because market incentives will induce companies to voluntarily reduce greenhouse emissions." [1].

Market incentives. Oh yes, I almost forgot. Would any of you like to volunteer to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? I have some nice market incentives here for you if you're interested. There right here in my bag. Would you like to see one? I think you'll like it. See. It's a tax rebate for not charging American consumers more money for cleaner burning automobiles. This way they'll keep buying your products, probably even more of them than you're selling now. Well yes, that's right. That will increase pollution slightly. But that's the free market! What are you going to do?!

Oh, the tax rebate. How will we provide that to you? Oh that's simple. We'll use American tax dollars to subsidize your investments. Yes, that's right. The same tax dollars that would otherwise be used to actually clean up the environment will be siphoned off to you and your shareholders for polluting it. And here's the best part! The Republican administration can claim it's cleaning up the environment!

This Washington stealth attack is an act of domestic terrorism. We are all in danger. All of us; even the ones who don't care. Even the ones who are among the capitalist gentry, who think that cheap gas for their Mercedes SUV's and the development of space-age technologies their wives' breast implants are a sure sign of progress for the human race. I wish there were an optometrist that could cure this kind of shortsightedness, but I'm sad to say there is no treatment currently approved by the FDA.

Well that's partly because the administration has been in office for well over a year and still hasn't appointed a director to lead this agency, or the NIH [2]. But who needs a director of the FDA when we have the "free market" to lead us to safer and healthier lives? If people want to buy genetically modified food products that cost less, why should the FDA care? Why should these foods be tested for safety when people want to buy them? Does the American public need to be protected against it's own ignorance? Just because we make them wear helmets when they ride motorcycles doesn't mean that they can't make sensible decisions about their diets, does it? Just because, "80 percent of people older than 25 are overweight," [3] doesn't mean that they're not responsible about their health, does it?

When should the government step in to "defend" or otherwise "protect" the American public? When does the government's complete disregard for the health of the American public, and the environment in which they live, constitute an act of Eco-Social Terrorism? In the past year we've witnessed two massive failures of the "free market" in the United States: The anti-competitive predatory business tactics of the Microsoft corporation, and the failure of the airline industry to provide adequate security for travelers. Both situations threatened the personal and economic health of Americans in this country; and in both situations, the government has provided the American public the appearance that it has stepped in to make sure that its citizens are not being held hostage by manipulative and/or negligent corporate greed.

But has anything really substantive been done? With Microsoft the real loss was primarily in public relations [now everyone hates the Microsoft giant - but we still have no other choices, and so we continue to buy their products]. In spite of the government's "strong" stand and their lip service about choices for the American consumer, it seems like Microsoft's vice-grip on the software market remains pretty much the same, and their stranglehold on the Net is getting more pervasive each day. As far as the airline industry goes, each day we hear about security breaches and how easy it is to get through security checkpoints; and now, one of the most visible elements of the "increased security," the National Guard, has been almost completely removed [4]. Although the National Guard was really more for the comfort of air travelers than for actual terrorist apprehension [there seemed to be an absurd logic about the expectation that a terrorist can be apprehended at security checkpoint, when there are probably 50 other locations where it would be much easier to sneak around security.] But still, it can't help security to remove the National Guard, since there's really nothing else in place.

As we watch the free market failing the safety and health of United States citizens, how big will the disaster have to become before the government decides that the American people are actually threatened? It took four hijacked airplanes to convince them that they should do something about airport security; and still, nothing substantive has yet been done. What irreparable environmental damage will have to occur, and on what scale, before the government intercedes? And will their action be anything more than delusive propaganda? Is the government's ignorance of the realties of the effects of environmental pollution a result of polls which indicate that the American public really doesn't care about these issues? And if the American public doesn't care about the health of the environment any more than they care about their personal health, and the government leaders don't step in to take the morally and ethically correct action in spite of this indolence, is there any hope for the human race at all?

[1] CNN online:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/04/22/bush.earth.day/index.html

[2] CNN online:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/02/23/bush.vacancies/index.html

[3] CNN online:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/03/05/obesity.poll/index.html

[4] CNN online: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/NEWS/04/30/security.relaxation.ap/index.html