Attorney Brennan bitterly attacked the Supreme Court for its ruling in the Schechter Poultry case. Public health authorities confiscated Schechters’ rotten chickens repealing the practice of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).

Citizens could use the smell test but odors could cover the smell. Hadn’t they used embalming fluid to keep milk from souring? Since Schechter’s day products have become more complex making it impossible for very sophisticated buyers to protect themselves heightening the need for regulation. Regulatory agencies often fail us because of conflicting clauses in their charters, underfunding, outright corruption or the revolving door that encourages regulators to tread softly in the hope of landing a plush job with those they are supposed to regulate. Some results are the San Bruno Pipeline explosion (six dead, 60 injured) and the Massey coal mine explosion (29 dead).

In other cases business practices outstrip scientific knowledge as in hydro-tracking and deep-sea oil drilling. In such cases we should use the medical slogan: Do no harm. Attorney Brennan seems to believe that businessmens’ ability to profit from the socio-economic system proves their genetic superiority, that they should be allowed to rape the public and the planet in search of the profits necessary to secure their privileges. When we vote for deregulation, we sell out to the grow-or-die mentality of the business community’s social Darwinists.

How many lives are we willing to sacrifice for more jobs? How much of our planets resources will we trade for more stuff and the mini storage units and three-car garages we store it in? We must regulate both our own appetites and those of the corporations if we are to save ourselves and our planet.

John E. Gibson

Blooming Prairie