Free market libertarians will say(with a straight face) that corporations would never cheat or harm their customers because the “free market” would punish them. Grown ups keep telling them that there is no such thing as a free market and that corporations will absolutely lie, cheat and even poison their customers if they think they can get away with it. There are so many examples of this in history that there simply isn’t enough room to list even a fraction of them. But, because it’s fun popping the fantasy that free market libertarians live in, here’s the most recent example of why government oversight is absolutely needed and free market libertarians are morons.

Via Wired UK:

A laser tool funded by the European Space Agency to measure carbon on Mars has been reappropriated to detect fake honey.

****


According to a Food Safety News investigation, more than a third of honey consumed in the US has been smuggled from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. To make matters worse, some honey brokers create counterfeit honey using a small amount of real honey, bulked up with sugar, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery (a type of unrefined sugar) and other additives — known as honey laundering. This honey is often mislabelled and sold on as legitimate, unadulterated honey in places such as Europe and the US.


***

What makes this story of high technology exposing lowlife criminals even worse for libertarian theology (it really isn’t a philosophy so much as a religion) is that the technology wouldn’t even exist but for government spending. The ESA is Europe’s version of NASA and there is no compelling reason for a private corporation to develop technology that will easily reveal adulterated or counterfeit foods. The “free market” has zero interest in policing itself and a vested interest in deceiving the public. On the other hand, government is the will of the people made manifest and we most certainly have a vested interest in knowing whether or not our food contains toxins or is even real food.

Corporations will never act altruistically as long as scumbaggery is most profitable. Without the government to do for the people what the people cannot do for themselves, namely, keep tabs on the corrupt greed of corporations, we would be even more at their mercy than we are now. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for libertarians but maybe it will go down better with a spoonful of honey. Or at least a honey-like substance laced with heavy metals and antibiotics.