Salmonella Egg Recall

There was a recall of eggs, due to some salmonella contamination.

When you hear such a story, your first reaction should be "Who benefits?" When the mainstream media hypes something, that usually leads to laws that restrict freedom and benefit insiders.

This story has the answer. New York is considering a law requiring a salmonella vaccine for chickens. That answers "Who benefits?" The new law is corporate welfare for the vaccine manufacturer.

A pro-State troll says "The salmonella outbreak is an example of an evil free market. Therefore, government should have more power." That's exactly wrong. The State explicitly encourages negligent behavior.

Notice the bias. The mainstream media says "OMFG! Salmonella outbreak!" The mainstream media does not say "X is responsible." The State food distribution is set up in a way that makes it impossible to determine the responsible party. Eggs from several corporate farms are mixed together. That makes it impossible to determine the true source of the contamination.

In a really free market, there would be many small farms. If there were contamination, it would be easy to identify the responsible party. If there were contamination, it would only affect that farm's eggs and not *ALL* eggs.

A small business owner has a strong incentive to protect his reputation. A huge corporation has a State-backed monopoly/oligopoly. There's no incentive for executives to protect the businesses reputation. Instead, executives manipulate the State. They create a food distribution system where it's impossible to determine accountability, if there's a problem.

The State encourages negligent behavior. The workers are employees. Even if one was careless, he wouldn't be personally liable. The corporation's executives are protected by sovereign immunity. If necessary, the corporation's executives can declare bankruptcy and cheat the victims.

Eggs from different farms are mixed together. That makes it impossible to determine the true source of the problem. The system was set up by insiders so that there would be no accountability. Any contamination means that all eggs must be discarded.

The egg salmonella problem is hyped as a "failure of the free market". It's actually a failure of the State. State regulations favor large corporations over small businesses. State regulations remove accountability.

The crisis is overhyped. It's an excuse for more State power. Laws are passed further restricting freedom. The new laws favor large corporations over small businesses. The "Problem! Reaction! Solution!" cycle is frequently repeated.