5 ms·

See Flint as an example. They know this stuff is bad but they are confident their wealthy town or county will not allow it to impact the drinking water supply.

See Flint as an example. They know this stuff is bad but they are confident their wealthy town or county will not allow it to impact the drinking water supply. It'll be "someone else most likely poorer areas" problem.

rayiner 6y ago
Flint is an example of what exactly? https://reason.com/2019/07/30/flint-water-crisis-democrat-debate-infrastructure/ https://reason.com/2019/07/30/flint-water-crisis-democrat-de... > Many in the media have parroted the absurd claim that the water crisis was caused by austerity, as if the government cared more about saving pennies than saving lives. The truth is exactly the opposite: Keeping DWSD as Flint's water provider was a cheaper option, but one that would have created zero new infrastructure jobs
- monadic2 6y ago
  This is what degrading all understanding of a political economy down to jobs and a stock market price does. Btw, it’s absolutely unacceptable to justify the degradation of water quality with jobs. Regardless the reasoning it was entirely irresponsible given the infrastructure in the area. Anyway it’s not like there’s any shortage of examples that austerity leads to loss of life.
serf 6y ago
>They know this stuff is bad but they are confident their wealthy town or county will not allow it to impact the drinking water supply. that is the strangest re-telling of the Flint water-quality story that i've ever heard. Nearly everything indicates that the steps in Flint were cost-saving measures that the citizens either 1) didn't know about, 2) were told that there wouldn't be problems, and 3) were promised health concerns wouldn't be a factor. Where exactly does this 'wealthy town that's overly confident" narrative fit? That hasn't been my perception at all with Flint.
- SECProto 6y ago
  Flint is not a wealthier town. They are one of the "someone else's problem" poorer places that the wealthier towns don't care about.
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    Flint's water problems were not inflicted by some nearby or upstream wealthier town. They were inflicted by Flint city (mis-)management. Even as detailed by the left-leaning NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378...
    - SECProto 6y ago
      Yes, but the whole issue was caused by them switching to a new water source because it was cheaper. And old lead pipes that hadn't been replaced. And inadequate water treatment to prevent these conflicts. Root cause would be mismanagement, but even more root is trying to spend less money without properly assessing dangers.
      - sokoloff 6y ago
        Yes, but none of that is related to someone else foisting their pollution off onto a poor area. It's entirely an own-goal.
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Meanwhile Reuters finds 3,810 U.S. areas with lead poisoning double Flint’s https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map-idUSKBN1DE1H2 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map-idUSKBN1DE1H... Also ran: Chrome-6 https://www.ewg.org/release/ewg-brockovich-carcinogen-found-tap-water-200-million-americans https://www.ewg.org/release/ewg-brockovich-carcinogen-found-... Cheers!

rayiner 6y ago

Flint is an example of what exactly? https://reason.com/2019/07/30/flint-water-crisis-democrat-debate-infrastructure/ https://reason.com/2019/07/30/flint-water-crisis-democrat-de... > Many in the media have parroted the absurd claim that the water crisis was caused by austerity, as if the government cared more about saving pennies than saving lives. The truth is exactly the opposite: Keeping DWSD as Flint's water provider was a cheaper option, but one that would have created zero new infrastructure jobs

monadic2 6y ago
This is what degrading all understanding of a political economy down to jobs and a stock market price does. Btw, it’s absolutely unacceptable to justify the degradation of water quality with jobs. Regardless the reasoning it was entirely irresponsible given the infrastructure in the area. Anyway it’s not like there’s any shortage of examples that austerity leads to loss of life.

serf 6y ago

>They know this stuff is bad but they are confident their wealthy town or county will not allow it to impact the drinking water supply. that is the strangest re-telling of the Flint water-quality story that i've ever heard. Nearly everything indicates that the steps in Flint were cost-saving measures that the citizens either 1) didn't know about, 2) were told that there wouldn't be problems, and 3) were promised health concerns wouldn't be a factor. Where exactly does this 'wealthy town that's overly confident" narrative fit? That hasn't been my perception at all with Flint.

SECProto 6y ago
Flint is not a wealthier town. They are one of the "someone else's problem" poorer places that the wealthier towns don't care about.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  Flint's water problems were not inflicted by some nearby or upstream wealthier town. They were inflicted by Flint city (mis-)management. Even as detailed by the left-leaning NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378...
  - SECProto 6y ago
    Yes, but the whole issue was caused by them switching to a new water source because it was cheaper. And old lead pipes that hadn't been replaced. And inadequate water treatment to prevent these conflicts. Root cause would be mismanagement, but even more root is trying to spend less money without properly assessing dangers.
    - sokoloff 6y ago
      Yes, but none of that is related to someone else foisting their pollution off onto a poor area. It's entirely an own-goal.

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago

Meanwhile Reuters finds 3,810 U.S. areas with lead poisoning double Flint’s https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map-idUSKBN1DE1H2 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map-idUSKBN1DE1H... Also ran: Chrome-6 https://www.ewg.org/release/ewg-brockovich-carcinogen-found-tap-water-200-million-americans https://www.ewg.org/release/ewg-brockovich-carcinogen-found-... Cheers!