If We Bought Groceries The Way We Buy Education

WPTF Radio ^ | 02/28/04 | Jerry Agar

[Copernicus]

If We Bought Groceries the Way We Buy Public Education

By: Jerry Agar

Public education is a monopoly controlled by the government. Whenever I point out that socialism doesn’t work, I am invariably told that I am wrong and that education is too important to be left to the private sector. Children have a right to education, and some children would not be educated without total government involvement.

Should we then decide that food is too important to be left to the private sector, in the belief that only the government can equitably distribute groceries? After all, if we don’t eat, we can’t learn.

What would it be like if we purchased food the same way we purchase education?

Grocery stores would be government owned and operated.

There would be a Department of Groceries with a highly paid Superintendent of Groceries, along with tenured positions such as Secretary of Celery, Deputy of Donuts and the Administrator of Arugula, all with fine offices and a staff (assistant Secretary of Celery.) Naturally, they would be housed in an expensive office building, full of people who never actually stock shelves, run the register, bag the food, unload trucks or retrieve the carts from the parking lot.

Every person would be assigned a grocery store. Despite public hearings, in the pretense of listening to the public, your grocery store would be assigned and you would NOT -–I repeat NOT – be allowed to shop in ANY other public food store regardless of its proximity to your home.

From time to time, due to population changes, each person would be reassigned to a different grocery store.

[Born Conservative]

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[SAMWolf]

HI Spooky!

[luckydevi]

for later

[Gabz]

Many do, not all.

[nopardons]

You are incorrect. Grocers used to water down milk, add all kinds of substances to it to make it whiter,and did the same thing to butter.And that's just for starters. Market mechanisms did nothing to correct the situation; NOTHING!

Prior to governmental meat inspections and laws, all kinds of things went on in slaughter houses and in Chicago, that would turn your modern stomach!

By 1910, Coca Cola no longer contained any coca leaves ( it never did contain pure cocaine!),but had a higher alcohol content ( yes, enough to make some drunk ! )than I bet you know about and it was the alcohol, that the government went after.

You can disagree with me till the cows come home, but historical facts are NOT up for " feelings " nor opinion.Unlike you, I mentioned incontrovertible fact, with no mention of canned goods or innovations.

In the late 1800s,many dairy farms were usually filthy places, cows were fed garbage ( yes, actual GARBAGE!) and/or feed distillery waste, which made the cows' milk tainted, even before the grocers got their hands on it. Many cows were tubercular, so ill and feeble, that they had to be raised on cranes, so that they could be milked. In 1902, in N.Y.C., when the city's Health Commission tested 3970 different milk samples,they found 2095, or over 50% had been adulterated. And no, this was NOT just limited to N.Y.C., At that timed!

Market mechanisms didn't stem the tide of these practices, the Federal Government did.

[nopardons]

I went to PRIVATE school, where fortunately, unlike YOU, I learned facts.

Attacking me personally,because you don't like what I post, is childish and absurd. Neither does that, in any way, refute historical facts,which obviously you are unaware of.

[Hank Kerchief]

I went to PRIVATE school, where fortunately, unlike YOU, I learned facts.

Attacking me personally,because you don't like what I post ...

First of all, I love what you post. I think it is hilarious. Secondly, I'm very sorry about your thin-skin. I hope you are able to solve that problem too.

The "fact" is, this country's food supplies and medicine were doing just fine until the govenment got involved with them. If you were taught otherwise in "private" school, or any other, you were taught lies.

I do not blame you for what others taught you, by the way. Just so you'll know I'm not, "attacking you." I do not attack anyone. No one is worth that effort.

Hank

[nopardons]

I'm not thin skinned, but you are rude and unknowledgeable about the very things you claim to know.

I learned about adulterated foodstuffs, in school, from reading on my own,and from first hand sources, who had lived in the 1800s and early 20th century. What are your sources, which will support your feckless claims?

Try reading " THED GOOD OLD DAYS-THEY WERE TERRIBLE", by Otto L. Bettmann, for a start. You'll actually learn something. :-)

[cyborg]

So....I guess it was a bad thing that the government removed cocaine from Coca Cola? /sarcasm

[Copernicus]

If you folks want to cry Insult! and let slip the gerbils of digression you are welcome to do so by private email.

I have offered here an alternative view to conventional wisdom which I believe has some merit.

We have all read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and can agree abuses were easy to find back in the 'good ole days'.

Sadly, we all HAVE NOT, for example, read the story of White Castle which set high standards of hygiene as early as 1912 for Hamburger Stands.

On balance, reasonable people can agree progress comes slowly under the best of conditions and the best of conditions do not include endless pronouncements from the nattering knuckleheads of nitwittery found in most government bureaucracies.

Best regards,

[nopardons]

I guess it was just horrible, that the government stepped in and stopped the sale of patent medicines, which were all laced with things like alcohol, opiates, narcotics, and toxic plants, made dairy farms stop feeding cows garbage and swill from plants that made beer and gin etc., enforced laws that prohibited grocers from selling rotten fruits and veggies, and installed meat inspectors. Yep, the government has NEVER done a thing correctly. </ sarcasm )

[Redcoat LI]

Thanks for the link.

I sighned the proclamation.

Another stellar reason why Free Republic is one of the most mind expanding pursuits one can engage in while sitting around smoking cigarretes and drinking Guinness.

[cyborg]

The only problem is that government is populated with human beings, and when most human beings get some power and authority they go berserk.

[daviddennis]

If you concede that government is not going to improve education in the foreseeable future, there seems to be little point in complaining about the analogy.

I'd say that unregulated food is a great deal less dangerous than highly regulated educaction, but that's just me.

D

[Drammach]

I tend to agree with nopardons on this one...

One of the examples I recall learning about ( in Public School, by the way ) was the sales of canned pumpkin misrepresented as peaches..
Sugar beets come to mind as well...
There were other examples, but that one always stuck in my mind..
Oft-times, what you saw was NOT what you got..

Fact is, however, that such violations of the public trust still happen even today.
FOOD LION comes to mind, and something about old and contaminated meats and meat products..

And, just like the turn of the century robber barons, when caught in the act, they simply deny any wrongdoing, contact their (well-paid) congressional representatives, and clean up their act for a while until things die down..
Then, it's back to business as usual..

[nopardons]

Unregulated food and patent medicines KILLED people;thousand of them and maimed others. Unregulated education was as bad, if not worse, than public education is today.Yes, I know that that's hard to believe, but it's a fact!

By 1870, compulsory education was the law, but it wasn't enforced.In one area of N.Y. C., 9 children out of 600, actually attended school. What did the others do?Some worked, a lot of them were gang members, who mugged and robbed and stole and.or were prostitutes. Many of the gang members were used by Tammany Hall ( Dems, in case you didn't know )to FIX ELECTIONS and terrorize others to vote Dem.

If you think that things were better in rural America, you're wrong.In Canton, Mass., in 1870 ( and this is rural country, NOT a city! ) after reprimanding four boys, by keeping them after school ( yes, detention is that old!),when they were let out, they STONED THE TEACHER TO DEATH . These were whites, BTW.

Out on the prairie, things were even worse.

There are good, bad, and indifferent public schools today.Can they be fixed? YES! Will they be? I don't know, but it doesn't look good.

[nopardons]

I remember that FOOD LION episode. They didn't really get off scot-free.Unlike times past,though, people could and did stop going there and marketed someplace else.

yes, I remember that pumpkin for peaches thing, but you're one up on me about the beets.

[AM2000]

Must be awful lonely out there, in the land of the Sane. Thanks for keepin' it real, as they say.

[nopardons]

Very lonely...very, very, VERY lonely, especially when set upon and vilified and insulted, for stating historically accurate,easily proven, facts.

Thank YOU, for your reply. It is appreciated more than you'll ever know. :-)

[Marie]

You are, by far, the classiest poster on FR. Most of us could learn a thing or two from you. Keep posting!