> [Original Message] > From: Tom & Elsa Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > <BobT wrote:> "When I saw this, I wondered if her exposure to > second hand smoke in bars may have had something to do with it." > > > Shows the engrained ideology; what about her eating habits, was she > > obese, was she prone genetically, was she just plain unlucky?
Mr. Treumann was just wondering. I don't think that betrays any ingrained ideology. If Mr. Thompson wants to address these other questions, perhaps he could find out something factual about them for all of us instead introducing them as innuendo. After all, that's the reason we like to have "both sides" of any argument represented here. Pertinent facts are one thing, but I have some moral qualms about making unfounded insinuations about the deceased. The *fact* remains, Julitta MacFarlane earned her living as a bar & restaurant employee and she died tragically of heart disease at a very early age. It's an on-point, local example of the very same and specific reason that Councilman Thune raised this issue in the City Council. > Not that I have any love for the owners of bars, bars and alcohol have > caused more misery than smoking every will. However, remember this > slippery slope. First it was guns and lawsuits against manufacturers, > then cigarettes, now bars, what's next? McDonalds, Burger King? > Already under way. And we wonder why the cost of products is > going up so fast. Safe products cost more than unsafe products. Safe workplaces cost more than unsafe ones. It's the reason that rampant free-marketeering is unacceptable. If the utopian free market were permitted to regulate itself in this respect, those consumers who select cheaper, unsafe products would eventually die off, thereby reducing the demand for unsafe products and selecting in favor of safe products. Great for the bargain hunters who survive! The free market has healed itself, but at the cost of significantly reduced population. The trouble is, the market only regards death as a reduction in the demand side which produces downward pressure on prices. I don't have any resentments against bar & restaurant owners, it's just that it takes humane influences to regulate the free market to truly serve human needs. Adam Smith himself acknowledged that in his *other* book, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". The optimal way to introduce humane regulation into the market is to do it in such a way as to maintain a level playing field for competing small businesses. That's why I'm bending over backwards to give Mayor Kelly the benefit of the doubt in bringing about the promised regional solution. Guy Western tapping my foot on the West Side _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
