Too little, too late, as usual

The AP has the story:

China's Cabinet vowed a complete overhaul of the scandal-ridden dairy industry Monday, pledging to inspect every link from the farm to the dinner table to try to restore public trust in Chinese-made food products.
In its strongest action yet, China's highest level of government called the industry "chaotic" and acknowledged there was a lack of oversight. At Monday's meeting of the State Council, or Cabinet, the government said it would punish companies and officials involved in the contamination of milk products that has been blamed in the deaths of four babies and for sickening more than 54,000 children.
The scandal revealed "that China's dairy production and circulation has been chaotic and supervision has been gravely absent," said a notice about the meeting on the government's website. Unscrupulous "elements" and companies had also put profit above people's lives, it said.
Police detained six more people suspected of tampering with milk in northern China, a spokeswoman said, bringing to 32 the number of people arrested in the scandal.
Monday's meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, was the latest attempt by the Chinese government to show it is tackling the widespread contamination of milk and other dairy products with melamine, an industrial chemical used in making plastics and fertilizers. It was the second time the State Council, China's highest government body, has met since the crisis broke last month. China has struggled to contain public dismay and growing international concern, castigating local officials for negligence while promising to raise product safety standards. But the scandal has continued to lead to recalls and the blocking of Chinese imports in numerous countries. The head of China's quality watchdog said the country was stepping up checks on its exports to ensure they conformed to the food safety standards of recipient countries, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Rico says that's all very well and good (and a bit of barn-door-after-the-horse), but what he really wants to know is what were they thinking? At some point, as you're about to stir the melamine (which undoubtedly has a warning on the packaging somewhere) into the milk, do you say to yourself, Hey, this is a great idea, why didn't I think of this earlier? Or do you say to yourself, Hey, would I feed this to my own kids? Or should you have said to yourself, Hey, when they find out who did this, are they going to shoot me or hang me? Rico says being castrated with rusty pliers would be a good start, followed by being forced to drink all the melamine-laced milk...