Lack of Regulation Creating Scandal in Seafood Industry

It seems a most peculiar time for big businesses and corporations to be launching an all-out effort to roll back regulatory protections.

As noted in The Nation (10/11/11), "it was insufficient controls on Wall Street
that facilitated the financial crash and the Great Recession, which threw 8
million people out of work... The country continues to suffer from a deep
recession caused in large part by financial deregulation and underenforcement of
existing rules. A string of corporate disasters — the BP oil gusher, the Massey
coal mine explosion, unintended acceleration in Toyota cars, leaded toys, killer
cantaloupes — all tied to inadequate regulatory protections, are fresh in the
public mind."

Nevertheless, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is leading the effort to weaken, eliminate, or prevent implementation of many regulatory protections that benefit the general public.

The chamber is using high unemployment as a wedge issue to gain support. The chamber falsely claims that regulatory protections are "job-killing," supposedly impose undue burdens on corporations and wealthy people who are the "job creators," and allegedly prevent them from undertaking new investments.

In other words, according to the chamber, if we get rid of these regulations, the economy will prosper and jobs will be created.

That's a powerful argument to use on those who are without work. Ah, were the chamber's contention only true.

The Nation notes, "even when they impose modest short-term costs on businesses, health, safety, and environmental protections also commonly create jobs by spurring innovation to address new standards... Even the Bush administration found regulatory benefits to be twice as great as costs."

We have near at hand here in New England a recent, dramatic example of the toll
that lack of regulation can take on the public.

The Boston Globe conducted a comprehensive, five-month investigation designed to identify mislabeling of fish served in area restaurants and sold in stores. The Globe noted (10/23/11) "consumers routinely and unwittingly overpay for less desirable, sometimes undesirable, species — or buy seafood that is simply not what it is advertised to be."

How widespread is this practice?

"The Globe collected fish from 134 restaurants, grocery stores, and seafood markets from Leominster to Provincetown, and hired a laboratory in Canada to conduct DNA testing on the samples. Analyses by the DNA lab and other scientists showed that 87 of 183 were sold with the wrong species name — 48 percent."

Almost half the fish sold to consumers was mislabeled. Why does the mislabeling occur? The Globe notes, "... industry specialists say money is commonly the
motivator. It's a way to increase profits — a cheaper fish sold as something
more pricey — on the assumption that consumers will not detect the
difference."

Why isn't this fraud detected? The answer: insufficient regulation of the sale of
fish. The Globe (10/24/11) writes, "Imported seafood accounts for 86 percent of
the fish consumed by Americans, but the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
examines only about 2 percent of imported seafood annually..."

The Globe (10/26/11) adds, "The nation's meat industry undergoes regular inspection by federal regulators. The seafood industry is the Wild West by
comparison."

The idea that the unregulated free market will of its own accord control these
excesses is a fantasy. State and federal regulation helped put a stop to unsafe working conditions, child labor, dangerous consumer products, slave wages, and discrimination in hiring practices.

The workplace in the United States today is safer and more just because of it. We can (most of the time anyway) purchase products without worrying about their safety.

Yet, regulation, just like the lack of it, can be taken to unreasonable extremes. When regulations become outdated or serve no useful purpose, they can stifle the
production of goods and services.

Like most things in life, the truth is neither black (no regulation is needed) nor white (the government should control and regulate all aspects of the economy). But rather, as is usually the case, the truth lies in the middle (some regulation is necessary and valid).

To make matters more complicated, depending upon prevailing conditions, the balance point in the middle shifts over time, sometimes a little toward the free market and sometimes a tiny bit toward more regulation.

Of this I'm sure, however: Our recent economic problems have resulted from too
little regulation, not too much. We need to move the needle toward more control
of corporations, banks, and Wall Street, not the other way.