It's fall 2007. America is Libertopia. Several dozen unrelated people in different states are hospitalized with e coli infections. None know about the other, and all eventually recover. But in the days and weeks that follow, there are more hospitalizations, followed by several deaths, mostly young children. The hospitals begin to notice a trend as they communicate with each other. Tainted meat may be the source, but there's no USDA to track it down, so the hospitalizations and deaths continue. A few wealthy libertarians send suspected hamburger samples off to labs, who confirm the strain. The meat, all packaged under different labels, is traced back to the Topps Meat Co in Elizabeth NJ. The libertarians file suit against Topps, and a hearing is set 3 months hence.
Meanwhile, Topps continues to produce and sell millions of pounds of tainted meat. The hospitalizations and deaths increase to epidemic proportions which then become national news. The plaintiffs notify the media that Topps is the source; Topps denies the allegations and asserts their product is safe. People stop buying meat. Meat industry stock goes into freefall, dragging ancillary industries with it. The stock market drops 25% in a little over a week. Individuals and pension funds lose billions $.
The meat industry get an emergency injunction (is that even allowed in Libertopia? Who enforces it?)
Anyway, they get Topps to stop producing meat, however Topps now has 50 million pounds of tainted meat out in the marketplace. By the time all this happens, over 1,000,000 people have eaten infected meat and a quarter of them (250,000) have died.
Reality: What really happened of course is that the USDA shut down Topps, using the police power of government, before anyone died. Only 30 people got sick. The stock market was unaffected.
The 'free market' proves itself again. Thanks, Libertopia!
