Conspiracies and Actuality: Just Follow the Money

I am sick of hearing people talk about events in conspiratorial terms. And I don’t really mean grandiose news items either necessarily but secondary issues. One old example that occasionally rears its head was over twenty years ago when nationally there was a big push to impose seat belt laws. All the talk was how this was an infringement of our rights, whose business is it anyway, and who do they think they are “Big Brother” protecting us from ourselves.
Well, in this an others I will explore it had nothing to do with any of those ideas but had everything to do with money – as it always seems to. There were two big reasons and forces moving this legislation ahead. One was that it was only 1981 when the infamous “Brinks Heist” occurred in Rockland County, New York where two policemen were bushwhacked by 60’s radicals turned bank robbers. After that cops were very jumpy on several levels such as they were outgunned and demanded heavier armament (that was followed by them being upgraded from the ancient .38 special revolvers to 9 MM, 10 MM, and 40 caliber Glock and Sigma automatic pistols and in some places the 1911 .45 to even the odds with the criminals). They then all got body armor which was either optional or almost always worn at the personal expense of the officer. But part of this was that they also demanded another legal reason to pull over a suspicious vehicle and the seat belt law provided them with this.
Also behind this movement was the insurance companies who were four square in favor of it because they stood to save loads of money on personal injury lawsuits. So in this case it was a two-pronged lobbying effort that caused it.
Right now we are seeing a crusade to outlaw smoking in public and even private places. There is a moral flavor to this effort but it is mostly driven again by insurance companies (for the same reason as before; saving money), the health and medical industry whom are providing the monetary engine for the movement, with moralists leading the charge visibly. Some are asking why the once all powerful tobacco industry isn’t putting up more of a fight and the answer to this is that for decades they have seen the writing on the wall and have been diversifying themselves out of that market. So their exposure has been declining for years.
I guess the moral of the story is that whenever we see any movement as big and as powerful as these examples were and are, it took much more than moral outrage to push it through. Just look at who is providing the funding for the movement and you will see who is really behind it. Those who are in the public view as spokespeople amount to nothing more than stooges whom may be either witting or unwitting accomplices.