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39 Comments
- inactive, on 04/12/2009, -0/+25WTF? A fine? How about some goddamn jail time? I'm not legal expert, but I'm pretty sure if I punched someone in the stomach, I'd go to jail. They basically do the same thing to 700 people, and they get a fine? That's ***** up.
- inactive, on 04/12/2009, -0/+19What sucks is that the company filed for bankruptcy so they won't have to pay this fine... I hope that if they can't pay the fine, the scumbag owner of the plant does jail time. After all, he knew they were operating without a license and that the plant was in such dire condition.
- scarth, on 04/11/2009, -1/+18when i first read the headline i thought they were fining the actual plant, like the vegetation, that grew the peanuts.
- user500, on 04/11/2009, -0/+17But since they filed to dissolve the company amount actual to be payed out is $0
- Angrynews, on 04/12/2009, -0/+16How about taking a look into WHY they were allowed to operate for FOUR YEARS without a food manufacturers license? I wonder how many other companies are doing the same.
- KUKBAHLAM, on 04/12/2009, -0/+16.......and everyone responsible walked away. The End.
- inactive, on 04/12/2009, -0/+13The government loves corporations and lawyers. they couldn't give a ***** about you. if you die thats fine as long as some lawyer gets paid.
- Sh3r1d4n, on 04/12/2009, -0/+10$14.6 million? That's peanuts...
- seltaeb4, on 04/12/2009, -0/+8Let's not forget the ones they killed, either.
- seltaeb4, on 04/12/2009, -3/+10Because all of those Republican tax breaks for multimillionaires and billionaires had to be paid for somehow.
So, FDA and USDA staff numbers are gutted, and consequently a few dozen people die and hundreds are sickened to the point of death with salmonella peanuts, *****-covered meat, etc.
But hey, the corporate execs get to pay off their third vacation home and get their kids into the best schools. You should consider yourself blessed to get sick and die so these Captains of Industry can live out their dreams! After all, they are better, smarter, and stronger than you. What use were you going to make of your pathetic little life, anyway? Social Darwinism, you see. This is what makes America the best nation on Earth. - inactive, on 04/12/2009, -0/+6While, all the government inspectors that didn't do their jobs and took bribes and gifts from the factory owners have not been disciplined or fired. The only reason all these violations came to light is that people started to die and get sick. But the years previously, the inspectors just turned a blind eye to all the violations. Kind of like what the SEC does on a daily basis.
- macmcraeart, on 04/12/2009, -0/+5yeah good luck with that.
- SlamShut, on 04/12/2009, -0/+5Me too. First thing I did was check to see if this was an Onion article.
- Dumbledorito, on 04/12/2009, -1/+5B-b-but regulation of any kind is baaaad! If a corporation is free to do what it wants then nothing bad should happen!
This means, of course, that the salmonella outbreak was caused by Marxist saboteurs, determined to bring the means of peanut production to the proletariat. If the previous sentence actually makes sense to you, please do us all a favor and go get sterilized. - markinMBSC, on 04/12/2009, -0/+4Wow - four years without a permit?? Seems there may be some wallet padding going on in Austin to keep everyone's mouth's shut. No inspections? Come on - what a sham. Their business license must designate them as a warehouse.
- DirtyVicar, on 04/12/2009, -0/+4The precedent this sets for OTHER food processing corporations is "hey, we won't hold anyone personally accountable, we'll just make it a financial risk". I'd like to know why no one pursues criminal charges for negligence in the food industry anymore.
- seltaeb4, on 04/12/2009, -0/+4Not quite. Our inspectors were spread too thin to do any good, and the plants had advance warnings of weeks so they could clean up the plant prior to the scheduled inspections.
- freedomischaos, on 04/12/2009, -0/+314.6 millioin / 9 = 1,622,222 per life. Not bad I'd say, given that most life insurance payouts are much lower.
/s - Cepharos, on 04/12/2009, -0/+3Same. Quite an easy mistake to make I guess.
:/ - Claverhouse, on 04/12/2009, -0/+3It is not actually the government that is responsible for maintaining safety, hygiene or controls over any production, no matter how stringent regulations are: it is the owners' responsibility.
That is not only the law, but also the only policy possible; in any case, no government could have sufficient manpower to continually inspect every workplace, let alone direct the running of private companies.
We all had 'true laissez-faire systems' in the middle of the 19th century, in Europe, America and the rest of the world: due to adulteration and remarkably poor cleanliness even in an age when that quality was not particularly advanced, many many people died and far more fell sick ( more so, than say, in the Middle Ages ) from food-poisoning. The responsible firms often thrived, often due to false advertising --- and, anyway, if the sole thing stopping one from producing bad food is the response of the consumer, the latter with neither government protection or legal recourse, one can always close and start up a new firm elsewhere. - TheCosmicFool, on 04/12/2009, -0/+3I know, nuts eh?
- consciousman, on 04/12/2009, -1/+3They were all friends of Bush....
- bshock, on 04/12/2009, -0/+2Yes, but are they still in business? If so, WHY?
- Cepharos, on 04/12/2009, -0/+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRPpXh2ycU4
- azubi, on 04/12/2009, -0/+2inspections can show a safe production line, when they tested product and it showed positive for salmonella and decided to ship it the company was at fault, not the inspectors. Salmonella mainly comes from rodents and their excrement, which makes me wonder how they felt it was an air duct that was the cause.
- BeccaShakur, on 04/13/2009, -0/+2Lets hope that money goes for the doctor bills and families of those who died, it's their jobs to keep the people safe.
- mauriceh, on 04/12/2009, -0/+2Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peeee..nut last night..
- antime1, on 04/12/2009, -1/+3laissez-faire capitalism at it's finest.
- seltaeb4, on 04/12/2009, -0/+2Food for thought, and why "private inspectors" are allowed instead of government inspections mandated:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/03/20 ... - syntaxgs, on 04/12/2009, -2/+3there WAS This One Time of this thing my friend tell me about that had a plants sue for falling on some one =O
I don,t think court have right too demands money from the plant =/ - inactive, on 04/12/2009, -1/+2So who's going to fine the FDA now for looking the other way while all this crap was going on?
- faridx82, on 04/12/2009, -0/+1salmonella sounds like a delicious food for a horrible virus. :(
- AlexGrant, on 04/12/2009, -1/+2Ummm... government regulation failed in this case. I don't understand why you are defending it? Nobody will be fired because it is the government, there are no consequences. If a private company was in charge of checking this food and determining it's safe, then they would all be out of jobs and probably be in prison.
- AlexGrant, on 04/12/2009, -1/+2I did not mean to imply that consumer response was to be the only way to hold these companies accountable. I am in favor of them being properly tried and thrown into prison, fined, etc.
- consciousman, on 04/12/2009, -2/+2Way to go Obama, you should have had them pay more for they carelessness...
- AlexGrant, on 04/12/2009, -2/+2It was government agencies that failed to check on this company, thank you very much.
In a true laissez-faire system private companies would be responsible for checking to ensure the safety of this food, and if they didn't do a good job, well then they would no longer exist as a company, it's all pretty simple. - govsucks, on 04/12/2009, -6/+6Oh joy, the FDA inspected this plant 3 times that same year and discovered nothing and now that they have filed bankruptcy and have killed many people they government is going to fine them. Boy, I sure do feel better with government protecting me. Especially after we spend another Saturday night hearing illegal gang members have shoot outs in our neighborhood. Awesome! I'm gonna rush out now to pay my well earned taxes.
- AlexGrant, on 04/12/2009, -2/+2I'm confused. Are you blaming the government for ineffective controls or are you blaming corporate executives?
It seems like the government is the one to blame here. They decide to take control of monitoring food production, so if anything goes wrong ineffective standards may be to blame. Of course the actual company producing the bad food is to blame too, but if the government does not hold them accountable (I'm all for jail and fines for these corporate execs) then the problem again is the government.
I don't think the problem is corporate executives per se. Any money that a corporate exec gets that is unearned has to come from some sort of government involvement. If a company has an exec that actually gets paid more than the company can afford, then the company will go under.
I agree that most corporate execs are getting paid way too much, and that is why their companies are failing. Thanks to the government, though, these companies are being saved. Sweet. - inactive, on 04/12/2009, -2/+2Er, the inspectors have been to this plant several times before and did nothing. These violations were so massive that you would have to be inept and blind to not have noticed them before. It has nothing to do about how "thinly spread" they are. Even if they only visited this site once over the past year, they should have found violations and made them correct it then.
What good are regulations if you are not going to enforce them?
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