Ban the Fats But Not the Rats?
Activists, and sometimes politicians, like to demand resignations in the wake of scandal. It makes for a good sound bite.
So here’s my question: Shouldn’t these same activists and politicians be calling for the resignation of New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, who apparently has been more concerned recently about banning trans fats than ensuring that his health inspectors are actually doing their jobs properly?
A city health inspector gave a passing grade to the notoriously filthy, vermin-infested KFC/Taco Bell just one day before shuttering it — after news cameras recorded a rat rampage through the Greenwich Village restaurant.“We’re looking to see if the inspector dropped the ball on this,” said Health Department spokesman Geoffrey Cowley. “I think it may not have been as rigorous an inspection as it should have been.”
…
After receiving three rodent-related complaints about the establishment to 311 in the past few weeks, the inspector visited Thursday and uncovered some violations, said Cowley – but allegedly not enough for a failing grade.
…
This time, they found a whopping 92 points worth of health-code violations — far surpassing a failing grade of 28.
As a libertarian, I am less uncomfortable with a city health department that actually conducts objectively crafted inspections of eateries* than I am with a city health department that is run by an out-of-control activist nanny-stater who spends his time crusading for the codification of his subjective preferences on topics such as diabetes, trans fat and baby formula. But the former ought to be a necessary condition of the latter; if you can’t make sure that your department performs it core functions, then you lose standing to perform secondary functions. “If you don’t inspect your meat, then you can’t ban any pudding! How can you ban any pudding if you don’t inspect your meat?”
I demand the resignation of Thomas Frieden.
(To which the only rational response is, I concede: “Yeah right, good luck with that.”)
UPDATE: The health inspector who originally gave the eatery a passing grade has been suspended. That was the easy part — what about Frieden himself?
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(*I do not concede, however, that health inspections, even mandatory health inspections, could not conceivably be performed privately — see generally, “Zagat’s,” “Good Housekeeping,” “Consumer Reports,” “Underwriters Laboratories” or “American Association of Law Schools.”)
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Actually, the Health Department usually does a pretty thorough job. I forget the website, but you can actually check out the performance of any restaurant. But I'd check it AFTER you eat there, because even at the nicest restaurants you are likely to find something disturbing in the report.
Is it just me or do those joint KFC/Taco Bells just feel dirtier than either of the stand alone restaurants when you walk in one?
Also, that trans fat ban annoys me to no end.
I do not concede, however, that health inspections, even mandatory health inspections, could not conceivably be performed privately
I don't understand how a private company could enact mandatory health inspections on another private company. I understand how a private company could conduct a health inspection, but it would require government action to make it mandatory.
[Kip replies: You can easily have a regime where the government mandates compliance with rules but with private monitoring or certification. College accreditation is one example; Wall Street licensure is another.]