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I don't disagree with you in principle, but in practice in the West, consumers don't prioritize safety in their purchasing decisions, but do a great deal of han

I don't disagree with you in principle, but in practice in the West, consumers don't prioritize safety in their purchasing decisions, but do a great deal of handwringing (and litigating) when unsafe outcomes occur, even if those negative outcomes are clear and obvious and a "rational actor" would make more careful purchases based on the evidence. The author is making the claim that legislation can create pressure for producers to create safer products absent consumer demand. I think the car example is well-motivated. We may not like how things work here, maybe things work other ways in other places, but I think his evidence is pretty compelling.

tbihl 10y ago
I may be alone on this, but I assume that the de-prioritization of safety is a learned behavior. I don't check a town before I move to see if their water is potable (never lived in Michigan) because that's been a reliable guarantee for me. On the other hand, I have picked locations by the ISP because I know that getting stuck with Comcast is likely to cause me suffering. Another example for me is roller coasters. In the US I trust implicitly in their safety. On the other hand, when I was recently presented to ride one of those handbrake car tracks down a mountain in southern China, I thought about the rickety bus I rode to get there, on horrendous streets with serious flooding problems, and I actually did consider the safety because I that I was in a place where it may not be automatic.