4 ms·

The FDA blocked private testing at a critical point early in the coronavirus. The FDA keeps many lifesaving treatments out of the US, at a large and unseen cos

The FDA blocked private testing at a critical point early in the coronavirus. The FDA keeps many lifesaving treatments out of the US, at a large and unseen cost. For example, the FDA blocked UVB sunscreens for a decade after they were permitted in Europe. Those extra US skin cancer deaths are "unseen" but are casualties of the FDA. In turn, the FAA allowed Boeing to "self-regulate" approvals of the MAX and after the first plane went down, still deemed it to be airworthy.

sudosysgen 6y ago
US institutions have a huge issue with regulatory capture
- refurb 6y ago
  Regulatory capture is profiteering off something other that value added. Which US institutions are profiting?
  - ponker 6y ago
    Boeing was, making profits selling unsafe planes.
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    ISPs are probably the big bugbear. Constantly ranked as one of the worst industries by consumers, competition doesn't exist in many markets or is noncompetitive, and mergers have slowly brought back the edifice of Ma Bell back from the dead.
  - chillacy 6y ago
    There’s a revolving door system where you can make laws to benefit an incumbent large company and conveniently end up as a board member in a few years after quitting the government role. So while the 3 letter agencies don’t profit directly, sometimes the people do.
mattkrause 6y ago
Anything involving risk and trade-offs is tough to evaluate. The FDA might be too slow to approve approve new sunscreens, but they also dragged their feet on approving thalidomide, a decision that turned out to be absolutely correct in hindsight. The FDA's overall reputation seems pretty good. Daniel Carpenter's book calls it "the most powerful regulatory agency in the world." This article talks about its (very positive) reputation as well: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.23.1.52 https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.23.1....

sudosysgen 6y ago

US institutions have a huge issue with regulatory capture

refurb 6y ago
Regulatory capture is profiteering off something other that value added. Which US institutions are profiting?
- ponker 6y ago
  Boeing was, making profits selling unsafe planes.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  ISPs are probably the big bugbear. Constantly ranked as one of the worst industries by consumers, competition doesn't exist in many markets or is noncompetitive, and mergers have slowly brought back the edifice of Ma Bell back from the dead.
- chillacy 6y ago
  There’s a revolving door system where you can make laws to benefit an incumbent large company and conveniently end up as a board member in a few years after quitting the government role. So while the 3 letter agencies don’t profit directly, sometimes the people do.

mattkrause 6y ago

Anything involving risk and trade-offs is tough to evaluate. The FDA might be too slow to approve approve new sunscreens, but they also dragged their feet on approving thalidomide, a decision that turned out to be absolutely correct in hindsight. The FDA's overall reputation seems pretty good. Daniel Carpenter's book calls it "the most powerful regulatory agency in the world." This article talks about its (very positive) reputation as well: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.23.1.52 https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.23.1....