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I trust airlines with my life without even thinking about it. Sometimes we even make fun of people who are afraid of flying. Incentives make a big difference h
by oconnor663 6y ago
I trust airlines with my life without even thinking about it. Sometimes we even make fun of people who are afraid of flying.
Incentives make a big difference here. Ignoring everything else, airlines don't want to lose their hundred million dollar machine in an accident. And the person most directly responsible for the safety of the flight -- the pilot -- is sitting right there in the machine with the rest of us. It's a good arrangement with a long track record.
I could imagine corporate-run nuclear plants that have the same incentives as airlines. I could also imagine bad ones, run by Homer Simpson. It probably makes more sense to judge case by case.
- bobthepanda 6y agoAirlines in less developed countries are certainly not as safe as they are in the West. Airlines are also different from power utilities, in that it's very easy to change airlines and not very easy to change grid operators. After Fukushima it's not like consumers could switch to a power utility other than TEPCO.
- oconnor663 6y agoAll good points!
- mikeyouse 6y agoYeah, I had PG&E in mind too when I said "How could you trust anyone in corporate America" -- look at their record even before their equipment burned down 10 million acres in California with the San Bruno explosion since they decided to ignore their own engineers' recommendations on maintenance intervals.
- rmah 6y agoThere's a story (probably highly exagerated) I heard about a nuclear power plant being built in china a while back. During construction, flaws were found and it was discovered that inspectors had been bribed to look the other way, etc. The gov ordered that all plant construction executives and crew bosses and their families had to live next to the power plant. Lots more problems were suddenly found but soon it was built and operating safely.
- _huayra_ 6y agoI think people have a lot of suspicion and disdain for corporate ownership of infrastructure. People abhor the windmills of BigEnerCorp that "disrupt" their view, but the same sort of folks in the next town over love their energy cooperative and the ROI of their town-owned windmills or solar farm.
- CogentHedgehog 6y agoCounter-example: the Boeing 737 MAX
- RockIslandLine 6y ago"I could imagine corporate-run nuclear plants that have the same incentives as airlines." So how exactly do you enforce that corporate executives and their families must live on site for decades?
- fnord77 6y agorecently, boeing appears to be doing all it can to break the trust it has built up over decades.