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How would the free market prevent the Fertilizer plant from exploding and killing all those people?

Danieru 13y ago
Fertilizer plants are expensive? As are wrongful death lawsuits? Not saying this is enough but no one is exploding these things for profit.
- shiftpgdn 13y ago
  Tort reform in Texas HIGHLY limits the payout on a wrongful death lawsuit. It'd barely be a dent in a days business for the plant.
chrismsnz 13y ago
Theoretically civil lawsuits, or the threat of such.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
spikels 13y ago
Explosions are very bad for business not only is your valuable plant destroyed but you can't make fertilizer until you build a new one. Existing and potential employees would demand higher wages and/or increased safety measures after an accident. Neither the free free nor a regulatory body can reliably prevent all accidents. Probably has more to do with how the interested parties value life and property.
- kalleboo 13y ago
  That's a great theory, but real life has shown time and time again that businesses don't always act in their own long-term interests and individuals aren't rational actors. And people aren't satisfied when the "cost of business" to reach the end-goal of having poor businesses weeded out is people's lives.
- ck2 13y ago
  Except they work on the idea "oh that will never happen", ala BP oil rig explosions. They refused to build a blast wall and congress defunded inspections so the last one was in the 90s so there was never any enforcement.
tantalor 13y ago
The industry under discussion (communications) generally does not risk lives, i.e., no catastrophe when you screw up. Some types of industry do risk lives. Don't confuse safety regulations with other business regulations. They serve completely different purposes. We should regulate the hell out of fertilizer depots, power generators, medical software, flight. For good reason.
- emiliobumachar 13y ago
  Communications can, in fact, kill people. High-intensity electromagnetic emissions. Those cell towers in the middle of the city have to be very thougthfully planned and installed.
  - white_devil 13y ago
    If "high-intensity electromagnetic emissions" from cell towers kill people, I doubt making them safe is just a matter of placement. If you want to place some in the middle of a city, they will be close to a lot of people, and if their emissions kill people, it's probably not a good idea to place them near lots of people. But they have been placed pretty much everywhere. It appears that either you're overstating the dangers, or we're both about to die any second now.
  - tantalor 13y ago
    http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png
icelancer 13y ago
How did the regulated market prevent it from blowing up?
- pyre 13y ago
  How did a law against murder prevent murders from happening?
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  If you've been paying any attention at all to the West, TX, story, you'd be aware that the regulators were largely defundend and eviscerated by anti-regulation interests. Gov. Perry got a little steamed when his "Business is Booming" campaign was highlighted: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/perry-disgusted-by-california-newspaper-cartoon-depicting-explosion-after-deadly-west-blast/2013/04/26/a80e80e8-aecf-11e2-b59e-adb43da03a8a_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/perry-disgusted-by-ca... Edit: better story link to cartoon.

Fertilizer plants are expensive? As are wrongful death lawsuits? Not saying this is enough but no one is exploding these things for profit.

shiftpgdn 13y ago
Tort reform in Texas HIGHLY limits the payout on a wrongful death lawsuit. It'd barely be a dent in a days business for the plant.

chrismsnz 13y ago

Theoretically civil lawsuits, or the threat of such.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

spikels 13y ago

Explosions are very bad for business not only is your valuable plant destroyed but you can't make fertilizer until you build a new one. Existing and potential employees would demand higher wages and/or increased safety measures after an accident. Neither the free free nor a regulatory body can reliably prevent all accidents. Probably has more to do with how the interested parties value life and property.

kalleboo 13y ago
That's a great theory, but real life has shown time and time again that businesses don't always act in their own long-term interests and individuals aren't rational actors. And people aren't satisfied when the "cost of business" to reach the end-goal of having poor businesses weeded out is people's lives.
ck2 13y ago
Except they work on the idea "oh that will never happen", ala BP oil rig explosions. They refused to build a blast wall and congress defunded inspections so the last one was in the 90s so there was never any enforcement.

tantalor 13y ago

The industry under discussion (communications) generally does not risk lives, i.e., no catastrophe when you screw up. Some types of industry do risk lives. Don't confuse safety regulations with other business regulations. They serve completely different purposes. We should regulate the hell out of fertilizer depots, power generators, medical software, flight. For good reason.

emiliobumachar 13y ago
Communications can, in fact, kill people. High-intensity electromagnetic emissions. Those cell towers in the middle of the city have to be very thougthfully planned and installed.
- white_devil 13y ago
  If "high-intensity electromagnetic emissions" from cell towers kill people, I doubt making them safe is just a matter of placement. If you want to place some in the middle of a city, they will be close to a lot of people, and if their emissions kill people, it's probably not a good idea to place them near lots of people. But they have been placed pretty much everywhere. It appears that either you're overstating the dangers, or we're both about to die any second now.
- tantalor 13y ago
  http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png

icelancer 13y ago

How did the regulated market prevent it from blowing up?

pyre 13y ago
How did a law against murder prevent murders from happening?
dredmorbius 13y ago
If you've been paying any attention at all to the West, TX, story, you'd be aware that the regulators were largely defundend and eviscerated by anti-regulation interests. Gov. Perry got a little steamed when his "Business is Booming" campaign was highlighted: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/perry-disgusted-by-california-newspaper-cartoon-depicting-explosion-after-deadly-west-blast/2013/04/26/a80e80e8-aecf-11e2-b59e-adb43da03a8a_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/perry-disgusted-by-ca... Edit: better story link to cartoon.