Well, as i see it; Upton Sinclair told the people of the USA that:
-meatpacking companies INTENTIONALLY sold canned meats that contained rat feces, rotten meat, and other contaminants
-the meatpacking industry operated grossly unsanitary plants, most of their output would be contaminated
-the meatpackers abused their labor force, and operated dangerous and unsafe plants
-USA consumers willingly purchased unsafe meat products
If the conditions in the meatpacking plants was so terrible, we should have expected mass poisonings (of consumers) to have occurred. I don’t see any historical evidence for this-one exception being the “embalmed beef” scandal of 1898 (soldiers in the Spanish-American War were issued cans of beef that were canned during the Civil War (1861-65).
So, did the cooking process make the contaminated meat safe to eat? or WERE there mass poisonongs of people in the 1890’s 9as the result of unsafe conditions in the meatpacking plants)?
The comparison to cigareetes is not valid-people have known that cigarette smoking cause lung cancer, for the last 45 years. the decision to smaoke is not the same as the decision to consume canned meats.
The Milton Friedamn quote is from “FREE TO CHOOSE”; i’ll try to dig up a cite.