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"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now
by mikepurvis 5y ago
"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
- technobabbler 5y agoTo be fair, though, what would you do if you were the decision maker? Would you really give up one of your yachts this year just to save ten thousand lives?
- mikepurvis 5y agoUnfettered capitalism says that the corporation has no conscience and if it can clear responsibility for the death with an out of court settlement, then that's it done and there's no further business. The obvious fix is some kind of government/regulatory involvement that introduces additional fines/costs for bad behaviour, whether specific to endangering the public or more broad. And of course, sometimes this is upfront standards stuff like we have for emissions, lighting, seatbelts, etc, whereas other times it's prosecuted as a negligence charge after that fact.
- NieDzejkob 5y agoI really hope this is Poe's law at work.