Jim Choate wrote:

See above examples. Hell, take a look at the wet pet food market now for a perfect example of why non-regulation is a bad thing and why liability and other such buzz words don't work in the real world.

One thing that has changed fundamentally in the Information Age is the ability for the consumer to get informed -- the ease if information publishing and retrieval and the inability to control it. Reputation has more value then ever. If anything the government should insure information disclosure (and enforce laws against fraud). Don't prohibit transactions, let the consumer decide. For example the market will place a value on FDA approval, whether individuals will pay more for or only consume FDA approved items, whether insurance will cover non-approved items, etc (and the FDA should be funded fully by evaluation fees, it simply becomes a sort of brand, it sells reputation). Government cannot protect people from their own decisions, and should not have the right to take those decisions away. I wouldn't eat at McDonalds even with all the regulation. More often than not regulation is a false sense of security, and often protects companies from legitimate liability (although god knows our liability/tort system is completely out of whack). Matt