Socialism Strikes Again - OSHA Warns Retailers
To fully comprehend the extent to which the socialist/welfare-state mentality is so deeply ingrained in the American fabric, one need only read headlines like "OSHA Warns Retailers" and not hear a deafening, concomitant angry uproar of protest against such muddled-headed nonsense.
Why would anyone not applaud OSHA coming to the rescue of workers?
That we would express approval for OSHA's latest pronouncement is a sad testament to how badly America has lost its way. A local matter - pertaining to a retailer, his employees and his customers - is a matter of national policy not merely in the form of the law which created OSHA and the rules that are meant to ensure the safety of employees but in the form of chastising retailers. Every retailer is on notice!
The only noise we are likely to hear is the clamor of a passel of parasitic, ambulance-chasing lawyers preparing themselves for a plethora of plaintiffs looking to sue Wal-Mart and/or any other retailer whom they can claim is negligent in instituting proper precautions against actions (misdeeds) which those companies cannot possibly predict on the so-called "Black Friday". Whether employees are malfeasant in their duties or customers are fanatical in being the first to acquire something - anything - or retailers are recalcitrant is a point which has now been rendered moot. Rest assured, the bubble-headed bureaucrats will punish the evil entrepreneurs.
Not only has OHSA set up conditions in which moral hazard is rife, they have imposed another mandate on all retailers which will permanently increase the cost structure for retailers (which logically will be passed on to consumers - thanks). Does anyone really believe that the OHSA warning will apply only to the biggest shopping day of the year?
This is yet another example in the litany of "unintended" consequences which the socialist mind-set conveniently chooses to ignore when proposing ideas for the "good of the nation" that only serve to further skew the economic landscape and add layers of costs to an already bloated and distorted price system. It seems clear that we're buying something other than the "goods and services" we think we're buying and over which we have no choice. As a result, given our limited budgets, we will have to cut back in other areas which, ultimately, will lead to other forms of intervention (to protect those industries/individuals impacted by that cut-back) that will increase the cost structure of other products, etc., etc., etc., ...
