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Well, let me use this little example of why the "free market" will not do anything to protect you and me.
About a year or so ago, I went to a local chain grocery store, bought some hot dogs and put them in my cart. Moved to the produce section and started smelling something foul, really foul. Went to another section and the smell was still with me, so I smelled the hot dogs and they were absolutely rank !
I went back to the meat dept and smelled the other hot dogs, and other meat, and most of them smelled horrible, really spoiled. I found 3 employees (two management types with clipboards) and said "smell this meat". They did, and agreed it was spoiled. I told them more meat smelled bad too, and I went off to wash my hands because they smelled from touching the meat. The thanked me and promised to take care of it.
The next day, I went back for some canned goods, and I stopped by the meat dept to just check to see if they had removed the bad meat...........THEY HAD NOT ! It was still there and still stinking !!!!!!!! I went home, called the Board of Health, and the next day all the meat in that store was pulled out.
So much for the "free market" policing themselves.
What you should have done instead is to contact every media outlet in your area and also spread the word around online. I guarantee once they were exposed publicly things would've cleaned up instantly. They also would've developed a terrible reputation and their competitors would have benefitted.
Now they're only going to suffer mild consequences, if any at all.
Because in theory, the Government isn't doing health inspections for profit.
If you privatize something like health and safety inspections, the for-profit companies will all be vying for as much business as possible. For some, that will mean accepting bribes in addition to their inspection fee, as the end game of a privatized inspector would be repeat business and the most customers possible.
There are plenty of business owners out there who would probably pay an inspector a few extra bucks for a positive report, and then continue to use that inspector.
At least with government agencies, you can't choose which inspector turns up or even when they turn up (in my experience).
At one of the hotels I worked in, when the inspector arrived they would ask for a list of vacant rooms. The manager used to manipulate the list that was printed to only include rooms in the renovated section, and rooms serviced by the very best housekeepers.
However, there was no 'hiding' issues with the food service areas (which, fwiw used to be scored separately and always scored exceptionally well), so that score at least was truly reflective.
Do you think that home buyers are going to slip the home inspector a couple of bucks to make a faulty report? What sense would that make? "Hey buddy, say that the roof is bad so that I can get the seller to replace it". The seller would simply get a roofing expert or inspector of their own who would find the roof to be fine and everybody would be back to square one - except the buyer would be out a couple of hundred extra bucks from bribing the inspector
As for bribing government health inspectors, I'm sure it happens, but I'm also sure that it is not nearly as rife as it would be in a privatized industry. A firm lacking integrity could just employ the company and inspector they know will take bribes.
Unethical people exist everywhere, in every walk of life.
My girlfriend is a chef; I know many chefs. They will all tell you that any restaurant owner with any semblance of intelligence isn't going to go out of their way to deliberately have a filthy kitchen and then pay someone to cover it up. That's business suicide, especially with social media and online restaurant reviews.
Besides, what in the world makes you think that government is somehow less corrupt and has less integrity than the private sector?
Unethical people exist everywhere, in every walk of life.
My girlfriend is a chef; I know many chefs. They will all tell you that any restaurant owner with any semblance of intelligence isn't going to go out of their way to deliberately have a filthy kitchen and then pay someone to cover it up. That's business suicide, especially with social media and online restaurant reviews.
Besides, what in the world makes you think that government is somehow less corrupt and has less integrity than the private sector?
Because in theory, the Government isn't doing health inspections for profit.
If you privatize something like health and safety inspections, the for-profit companies will all be vying for as much business as possible. For some, that will mean accepting bribes in addition to their inspection fee, as the end game of a privatized inspector would be repeat business and the most customers possible.
There are plenty of business owners out there who would probably pay an inspector a few extra bucks for a positive report, and then continue to use that inspector.
At least with government agencies, you can't choose which inspector turns up or even when they turn up (in my experience).
In theory government serves the people.
For some, yes. But for the vast majority the private inspectors (some of which may be non-profit) will cherish their reputation and will be honest, as they know their competitors with higher reputations will gain from their dishonesty and will eventually put them out of business because of it.
There would be. Of course the consequences for cutting corners will eventually drive them out of business.
Fair point, but I've also seen government inspectors show up at inopportune times, such as in the middle of a lunch rush when the kitchen is a disaster. Then the restaurant gets bad marks.
so now you have a problem with regulations OP? those of us that call for reduced regulations are not about eliminating them, just cutting them back to what is necessary. there are a ton of regulations that are either just job killers, or very outdated and have been superceded.
Awfully vague excuses for deregulation if you ask me. Examples please.
What you should have done instead is to contact every media outlet in your area and also spread the word around online. I guarantee once they were exposed publicly things would've cleaned up instantly. They also would've developed a terrible reputation and their competitors would have benefitted.
Now they're only going to suffer mild consequences, if any at all.
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I went home, called the Board of Health, and the next day all the meat in that store was pulled out.
