...and yet their health care system is great. I'd know, I lived there, and there's plenty of data to back it up.

The ISSUE is your health care system in the states is terrible and needs to be fixed by either changing to a system like Canada, Norway, or Denmark who have a great system in place. Or Look to other countires that have a health care system in place like the one you Americans love (I.E switzerland) and learn from it. Michael Moore is not the issue and I dont understand why you're talking about him. I simply used the youtube clip as an example of a publicly funded system that works great and is superior to the American system. 

Yea because a company that has waste won't dump it into your drinking water if they don't regulate him to not do so. So yes the government is there to stop those things. There is a lot of good regulation and bad regulation. This is not a all or nothing, there is a grey area. GOV. plays a major role. sorry you don't think so. People die off of unregulated companies all the time. If you didn't know that you are not informed but you go ahead and trust a person who see's profits over people.

except that in a free market, a company wouldnt be successful at all if they poisened their consumers.

its not it the best interest of a company to harm their consumers, they will/would quickly go out of business if they did because everyone woul switch to the other competing company that isnt killing them.

there is little to no need for the government to regulate companies.

self regulation by the market will do it wayyy more effectively.

No it won't and the 1800 show that. lets wait until people die. Do you know how many companies I can name that are killing people right now and no one is doing a fucking thing. This site is full of, you guessed it, smart guys. Poisesn don't just kill people. Sometimes it takes years. So who is going to notice, until it's to late. How many products can you think of that have been banned that stuck around for 100's of years. Lead paint, cancerious polution and many other things. 

and how would government regulation fix this problem, are they going to find out about it before people. like I said it requires a free market, and like kaz said it requires a honest and transparent media and government to report on it. that requires a smaller government that gets out of the business of business. becuase that means thes "evil corporations' wont have any lobbying power in the first place. government has pushed for many things and regulated things that they thought were good for us just for it to be found out they were all wrong years later. ethonal is a prime example, government really pushed for subsidies for it, it now turns out its less effiecient and worse for the environment, and increases corn (food) costs.

What about the guy down stream from a corporation that dumps chemicals in the water or into the ground. This also cause's cancer but hey they will go out of business. .

I'm done with this thread for a while. You people are something else. Maybe when this country is a smoking pile of sh-t you will actually wake up to intelligence.

There is a sayin that goes around my college, don't even talk to the guy that watch's fox news, He's to stupid to even understand common sense. What makes you think he could understand Politics. This is very much the truth.

So in conclusion, the 1800's was exactly what you all want to so bad. it was a horrible time in america and corporations destroyed dreams, hopes and lifes. The free market does not just run on it's own, it can but do you think you or I can survive it. No. The free market is a stupid idea. Almost all bizz would get destroyed in a free market and only the most corrupt and the most evil will survive. I will say it again america has a bunch of stupid fucks that like to take all of there info from the guy fucking them in the ass.

No it won't and the 1800 show that. lets wait until people die. Do you know how many companies I can name that are killing people right now and no one is doing a fucking thing (1). This site is full of, you guessed it, smart guys. Poisesn don't just kill people. Sometimes it takes years. So who is going to notice, until it's to late. How many products can you think of that have been banned that stuck around for 100's of years. Lead paint, cancerious polution and many other things.

So, despite the FDA, EPA, DOH, and the hundreds, if not thousands of other federal, state, and local agencies who's goal is to protect human health and the environment, shit's still going down. Really, how is this an argument for your point? Some of these agencies , for all intents and purposes, have close to ultimate power, and nigh-on limitless funds, and yet you can still list all of these companies? Here's a hint: regulatory bodies do not work.

Also, it is true that many harmful chemicals have been used in products for centuries. But, here's the problem: for most of the chemicals, the dangers were not known or fully understood until recent decades. You cannot blame any institution, public or private, for allowing a chemical in use if the long-term effects were not fully known. Some of these problems take decades to emerge, and a significant body of data needs to be collected before anything is proven. There will be chemicals that we use today, that we believe to be totally harmless, that will probably show evidence of being harmful in the future. We cannot blame the businesses for using them.

Finally, what about all the people that the FDA has killed because it's been over-cautious? The FDA has every incentive to regulate/ban/not license as many chemicals and pharmaceuticals as possible. Why? Because if they don't, and people start getting sick, a lot of questions about the FDA's very existence will be asked... and that's not a debate that the FDA wants. Through being over-cautious, many drugs that could be out today, and saving lives, are still going through over-zealous testing that will last months, if not years. What is not seen is all the people who are sick and dying because of this.

What about the guy down stream from a corporation that dumps chemicals in the water or into the ground. This also cause's cancer but hey they will go out of business.

Like I said before, why can't the EPA stop this? They have full power to do so under their Congressional Authority, and a budget to suit.

Here's a solution: instead of having these water sources be state property, let private citizens own them. They have a direct incentive to protect their water sources, as water is an extremely valuable resource. Maintaining a nice environment also opens them up for tourism money, and things like fishing/boating permits. As a result of this, people won't be able to get away with dumping so easily, th environment will improve, the quality of the water will improve, and it'll save the tax-payers some money, to boot.

I'm done with this thread for a while. You people are something else. Maybe when this country is a smoking pile of sh-t you will actually wake up to intelligence.

Just because somebody doesn't agree with you, doesn't mean they're not intelligent. Here's an idea, come to the UK! We have all the Government you could possibly want, probably more. And, yet, our problems are basically exactly the same as yours. We still have a health care system which rejects people with certain conditions, or provides lower quality to poorer people, we still have a shitty education system, we still have a countryside that's being destroyed, we still have poverty. In many cases, we're much worse off than the USA.

There is a sayin that goes around my college, don't even talk to the guy that watch's fox news, He's to stupid to even understand common sense. What makes you think he could understand Politics. This is very much the truth.

I think very few of the people commenting on this thread watches Fox News, or at least takes it seriously. It is possible to form opinions outside of the mainstream media. The real world isn't all Fox Vs. MSNBC.

So in conclusion, the 1800's was exactly what you all want to so bad. it was a horrible time in america and corporations destroyed dreams, hopes and lifes. The free market does not just run on it's own, it can but do you think you or I can survive it. No. The free market is a stupid idea. Almost all bizz would get destroyed in a free market and only the most corrupt and the most evil will survive. I will say it again america has a bunch of stupid fucks that like to take all of there info from the guy fucking them in the ass.

In conclusion, you've just proven that you don't even know what free markets are, you also don't know your history. Corruption is impossible in a free society, as it requires twisting the arm of somebody who holds a monopoly on violence... that somebody being somebody in the Government (that's all a Government is, btw, it's not some magical institution... it's just an organisation like any other business, the difference being that they have a monopoly on creating laws, and owning big guns. If you think that's a better model for survival, you're naive).

SamuelRSmith, did you just state the FDA was over cautious on approving drugs? That is news to me... Fuck the FDA, DEA, EPA, DOH.. They are all bought out. Almost all the people involved in those organizations are looking out for private enterprises (previous employed by the ones they are supposed to regulate). The government regulatory agencies are owned by private companies. Why do you think they still sell shitty anti-depressant drugs that have worse side effects than beneficial and now selling to children. Do you actually believe they have our best interest at heart when they pump kids full of prescription speed for ADHD which almost any kid could be classified as having (with their "symptoms" list). Ever been anxious before a test, excess energy, ever had any symptom of being a kid??? Take this speed is their answer. 

Yep I completely agree but this is what you get when you got people in the goverment that allow conflict of interest. This should be regulated as well. No Fucks from monstanto, no people form the private orginization that are seen working deals, if so you all go to jail but with people like on this site around. This will never happen. they like to destroy these regulatory systems. Then say, see it doesn't work because we stocked the agency with our own guys and f-cked it all up. JAIL FOR ALL THESE F_CKS> O yea I was one of those people on anti-depressants.

SO what the answer put more laws in place to stop these f-cks and put them in jail.