No, they won't pass the cost back to the consumer. The cost structure is: - Unsafe product is shipped - Damage is done - Someone pays for it (ultimately the

No, they won't pass the cost back to the consumer. The cost structure is: - Unsafe product is shipped - Damage is done - Someone pays for it (ultimately the consumer) The difference is that if the consumer directly pays for it, companies have every incentive to make unsafe products, and those costs are very, very high. If the companies pay for it, the free hand of capitalism steps in, and optimizes such that any safety measures where expected returns are positive are implemented (and those where expected returns are negative, not). If a death costs $1M, and I can do a safety measure which reduces odds of death by 0.01% for $100, it's cost-neutral. If that same measure costs $50, an efficient business will implement it. If it costs $200, it won't. That allows global optimization. By setting the price of death, you can have a set point for what safety measures will be taken, the system optimizes adequately well, and deaths go down, so fewer costs are passed back.