>>I thought of you as I watched last night's 20/20, John Stossel's politically incorrect politics. One of his points about government regulation is that it's always aimed at solving ancient problems, which is regulations fatal flaw.<<
Karen -
I didn't see the show, but I partially disagree on that point. I used the ancient example of ladies painting watch dials with radium only because it came to mind. It isn't even a particularly apt example, since it is true that nobody knew the dangers of radium at the time. Of course, even after the women began developing tumors on their lips and tongues, it took a long time before anything was done about it, but I won't wander.
Working conditions in the factories and sweat shops of the Industrial Revolution and the period following it were, for the most part, horrific. Yes, safety regulations that exist today are in place, to some extent, because of that. Regulations are generally put in place following some sort of horrific accident, or after many horrific accidents. In that way they aren't really dealing with ancient history. They're dealing with recent history.
But the reasons for having safety standards, and for enforcing them, haven't changed. It's not as if workplaces no longer present hazards.
Has OSHA gone too far? Perhaps. So we should deal with that. But let's not just scrap it.
The libertarian view is that somehow big corporations will correct unsafe working conditions, and other types of misbehavior such as polluting rivers, in response to market forces. I've never heard a convincing argument on how that would work, nor have I seen any historical evidence to support that notion.
- Allen |
