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7 Responses to “Thought for the Day”

1. Antigone says:

   February 22, 2009 at 9:25 pm

   And, that generally sums up my thought about “corporate responsibility” generally. They’ll only be safe if it’s cost efficient. Otherwise *shrugs*.
2. Stacy says:

   February 23, 2009 at 11:33 am

   What people don’t get is that “self-regulation” does NOT mean “never any pain”. This government cure is going to be worse than the disease, because it will replace a painful 6-month shakeout with a painful 20-year Japan-style malaise.

   And you’re on something if you think the government has ever heard of responsibility. And I say all this as a public-choice economist who believes that sensible regulation is an essential condition of a free market. We are no on the wrongest wrong path since this nation’s founding.
3. Antigone says:

   February 23, 2009 at 12:10 pm

   If the “pain” it takes is a “couple of people dead, and some really sick”, you’re kind of a nutcase.
4. Stacy says:

   February 23, 2009 at 12:31 pm

   Oh, now I get it – the cartoon is referring to the peanut butter thing. I was referring to the stimulus.

   As I said, some regulation is essential to a free market, with health standards being a prime example. None of us have the resources to find out for ourselves if any given food product is safe. Then again even there I can point out examples of non-government self-regulation, like UL or IIHS. That’s not necessarily practical in every case, but I don’t see any reason there couldn’t an equivalent of UL for food. Producers could either get the “Food Labs” logo or most people won’t buy their products.
5. Antigone says:

   February 23, 2009 at 3:14 pm

   Stacy-

   Okay, I see what you’re saying know. We were talking about two different things.

   The only problem with having the free market “seal of approval” like the Food Labs logo is that it is possible that Food Labs can be bought off. If you respond that “Food Labs would lose business if they lost their quality” that’d be true: but that doesn’t seem to stop anyone. Take a look at the New York Times: they used to be a THE bit of quality news. Now they’re shit, because they sold out that reputation when they fired of all of their actual news staff. In the long term, it was a stupid decision. In the short term, they made AMAZING profits.

   In a news paper, it’s pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as people dying.
6. violet says:

   February 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm

   Producers could either get the “Food Labs” logo or most people won’t buy their products.

   I work with a fairish amount of electronic stuff. I’m vaguely aware that the UL stamp means something. I do not know what that something is, I don’t look for the UL sticker, and I certainly don’t refuse to buy products without one. I pay taxes in part so that someone else will do that for me.

   If the state doesn’t do this thing, one of two things will result: 1) This thing will not be done, so there will be more damage and deaths, or 2) This thing will be done by consumers and retailers, shifting the cost burden.

   Free market rahrah capitalism rah types tend to say, well, (2) is what will happen, and it will be cheaper! I do not think this is true, though I’m willing to hear evidence to the contrary. What seems to actually happens is (1), but free market rah rah capitalism rah types don’t care, because it’s mostly poor brown folks getting hurt.
7. Maya says:

   February 24, 2009 at 1:32 pm

   I work in the medical device industry and can honestly say regulation is a good thing. The company I work for is very conscientious about patient/consumer safety, but there are a lot of Pharma/Device companies that aren’t. If we didn’t have the FDA regulations, Institutional Review Boards, the Declaration of Helsinki and other regulations there would be loads of companies sacrificing patient safety for profits, hell, even with regulation there are a lot of companies that do that, so imagine what it would be like without regulation! And I am in an industry that deals directly with health issues. I can’t even imagine the pressure of other types of industries to cut corners.