The legal environment is not new to the companies operating in it. Nothing in that environment prevented them from preparing properly, yet they didn't. Example

The legal environment is not new to the companies operating in it. Nothing in that environment prevented them from preparing properly, yet they didn't. Example for why your argument doesn't hold water: one of the issues mentioned in the thread is that trucking companies can only stack containers two high in their yards. Well, what do you think would have happened if that regulation had been changed to six high (one of the suggestions) 20 years ago? Trucking companies would now own or lease smaller yards! GP is absolutely right that the capitalists need to foot the bill of clearing this mess. It does seem to me that government should step in to resolve the Gordic knot of coordination problems discussed elsewhere in the thread, but the companies who screwed it up in the first place need to be stuck with the bill. That's part of the deal of capitalism: you get the chance of profits, but also the risk of losses.