Re: Off Topic: The Insane War on Drugs

["Laura J. Walker" <LJW6626@worldnet.att.net>]

Greg Peisert wrote:

>  This is amazing. You actually appear to be serious. You actually think the
> "world of legitimate business" is like the "world of Scarface". Laura, when
> you try to make those kinds of claims, you exclude yourself from the ranks of
> the rational.

You're putting the extreme face on it, Greg.  I believe that when it comes to
capitalism/profit motives, there is no difference between the "legitimate
business" and drug cartels.  This is, of course, at the extreme end...

If you'll recall, there have been some pretty ugly true stories about how far
"legitimate" business will go to silence others in order to carry on their
"legitimate" practices.  Karen Silkwood died trying to bring to light the
practices of Kerr-McGee; the Rockefellers (I know I've used this example a
number of times...) coerced, burned, intimidated and muscled-out small,
independent oil producers earlier in this century.  How many miners had to die
-- by violence inflicted on them by company goon squads -- before illegal and
dangerous mining practices were changed?  And what about the early GM lockouts,
where workers were not only shut out of the workplace, but beaten senseless by
GM goon squads, to shut them up and keep them from organizing for better, safer
working conditions?  A more recent example is the long-running (now ended)
strike at the Detroit Free Press.  Knight-Ridder used a variety of these same
tactics on the employees who had been locked out, and on employees who even
sympathized with the strikers.

Not every company, of course, goes to the extreme.  But it can and does happen;
it has happened throughout this century and it is only in the name of
capitalism, control of a product, and the $$ earned from the product that it
does happen.

I don't think I'm at all excluding myself from the "ranks of the rational" by
pointing this out.  Indeed, I think anybody who doesn't believe that such
practices exist is deluding themselves...

But, then, we'll never see eye-to-eye on many things, Greg.  ;-]

Laura



>
>
> --Greg