Harry responded, “No doubt about it, bug dope. You can't imagine what it was like in an Indian village before insect repellent and DDT. Everybody was lousy, everybody. Women spent most of their free time picking lice off of little kids. The whole summer was spent standing around a smudge trying to keep the mosquitoes and gnats off. People couldn't wait for winter and freedom from mosquitoes. Bedbugs gnawed on people every night. Yeah, bug dope is the neatest thing I've seen.”

Like imposing on the banks the credit rating agencies to guide their credit analisis

Like printing out on your bottled water that it contains zero calories

Like the mind boggling “be careful” swimming pool instructions I see around US pools.

“It is in the best interest of an enlightened firm, enlightenment which began to occur approximately the same time the means with which to actually build sewer systems and water treatment plants, to have employees and business partners who are healthy and fit to be productive.”

Which reveals a complete ignorance of the tragedy of the commons, which is the whole PROBLEM with socialism.

Socialism's failure is that it imposes a commons, which is inevitably tragic. That doesn't mean the market doesn't still fail when there is an unimposed commons like the sea, the air, etc. You people mock the idea of market failures, but the driving concept behind market failures is the same as the driving concept behind the opposition to socialism – nobody has any incentive to do anything about it, so there is sub-optimal investment.

The great sewer system of London was a government initiative – only the government could engage in a monopoly of large underground tunnels.

Then again what happens when innovations improve hygiene but for the wrong reason? The great sewer system of London as well Semmelweis hand washing were both based on the concept that disease was caused by 'miasma'.

Capitalism requires healthy creative individuals to, if nothing else, show up every day, day after day, healthy and fit to perform designated functions which they either assign themselves, or have assigned to them by an employer.

Socialism, the state, only concerns itself with the redistribution of capitalist wealth in order to buy votes. Yet, even being stupid socialists, sometimes one or two are actually bright enough to understand it is to their benefit to not stand in the way of capitalism, after all, where does the wealth they steal come from?

It is in the best interest of an enlightened firm, enlightenment which began to occur approximately the same time the means with which to actually build sewer systems and water treatment plants, to have employees and business partners who are healthy and fit to be productive. No capitalist benefits from being surrounded by chronically ill people who are subject to plagues, and/or frequent outbreaks of disease because of raw sewage being present in their housing and communities, or from the lack of fresh clean water.

So, my little pet, are you so certain that capitalism didn't drive the planning and construction of sewage systems, treatment plants, and of fresh water systems?

I think you are so fucking wrong, and that it is typical of you to jump in with your stupid socialist head up your ass.

http://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/article/25495...

Cleaner means only more profit for cleaning product companies, which, of course, is fine.

I think one of the best things a person can do to appreciate capitalism (in every regard, not just cleanliness) is to travel to a rural area in a third-world country, particularly one that has followed a socialist policy for decades. I know, from my personal experiences in the villages of India, how much this has solidified my support for free markets.

I have kids in diapers. Everytime I change one I am reminded of what life must have been like without disposable diapers and wipes and hand sanitizer, let alone indoor plumbing and running water. Unimaginable.

You could, for example, post one such example in the comments to every one of the examples posted here. Good luck.

I could easily do a series Cleaned by Government Planning as well. We need both good markets and good planning.

To try to give all the credit to capitalism is disingenuous. Most of the products you detail have lots of public money in their development histories.