Yes. That being said, to this day TEL remains the cheapest way to add octane to gasoline, if one disregards the public health issue. So it's not as simple as e

Yes. That being said, to this day TEL remains the cheapest way to add octane to gasoline, if one disregards the public health issue. So it's not as simple as evil corporations profiting from poisoning people, customers got to enjoy cheaper gas as well. Clearly, in retrospect, it was a poor tradeoff. Hence the argument for regulation, as the government is the entity that ought to weight society wide tradeoffs instead of individual companies or persons optimizing their own benefits.