Boeing does not make hair dryers. “Limited government”...not zero. Public safety is entrusted to bureaucrats policed by an Inspectors General...gutted by the former president. So at its core the problem of the 737MAX could be laid squarely at 0bama’s feet.
Read my prior posts: I’ve maintained without failure that the plane would be safe in trained pilots’ hands. However, as more information has become available it has become clear that the profit culture between aircraft manufacturers, airlines and the regulating bodies are endangering the flying public...all-the-while we are placated with “statistics” demonstrating a safe mode of travel while engineering the pilots (an expense and liability) out of the equation (i.e., autonomous flight).
I reiterate that the plane would never have killed a soul had it been run through a normal flight testing program. FAA granted Boeing the ability to certify itself and greed delivered defective aircraft.
Oh, but how silly of me: Private company Boeing grounded its own planes, didn’t it? /s
I’m now convinced that if Judicial Watch was to dig deep enough, there will be evidence of the 0bama administration’s fingerprints all over the FAA’s decisions which led to the Boeing self-certification process. Again, it was his administration, after all, which emasculated the IG...
In part, as opposed to your own examples, this is more closely related to Clinton’s technology transfers to China and Uranium One than a simple greedy corporation story like Deepwater Horizon, PGE/Chromium/Brockovich and innumerous other examples of reckless corporate actions.
You wrote:
“They have to live with the consequences even as their failure as a company would impact all of us to some extent and I do not want to see them fail.”
If you believe that and your other (”They, not the FAA, are ultimately responsible for the product.”) then the 737MAX should remain grounded for a year or more, considering that they now no longer believe a simple software fix is the problem (see https://interestingengineering.com/boeing-737-max-8-likely-grounded-for-rest-of-2019-after-new-concerns-raised).
The hardware problem in the flight control system is a major flaw which endangers public safety and with the plane seeing the rest of 2019 on the tarmac, Boeing’s stock is still above its 2018 average; it should be tanking. Boeing cheated to beat out Airbus; shareholders have yet to pay the price for their actions.
Ask yourself “Why?”.
Government didn’t create the problems facing the public resulting from commercial aviation, but they certainly granted these private companies license to operate dangerously:
Kapton wiring
http://www.vision.net.au/~apaterson/aviation/kapton_mangold.htm
737NG structural flaws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxxtzBTxGU
I’m not going to debate your points further: You have your opinion and I have my own.
Thanks for the reply. I had seen the Aussie video you linked previously. I had not seen the information on the flawed wiring insulation before and arc-tracking is definitely a fire concern across the appliance industry in electrical applications.
However, both of those pieces focused on something other than the problem with MCAS in the new 737.
I am not convinced that a larger more expansive FAA is the correct answer. I am always concerned when larger government is a possibility because we have to find a balance between the free-market and affordable and sustainable government.
I would like to split the baby if possible with some solution that balances safety and oversight with the free market. My whole point is not that mistakes were not made and they should not be corrected, it is a simple caution that we must make sure the “solution” does not become a problem of its own given our recent history of “more government to fix a problem” as illustrated by the examples that I provided.
Was the correct answer to explode FEMA into a first responder agency with their own trucks and warehouses of rotting food and spoiling water? That is what happened.
Was the correct answer for men getting on planes with box-cutters to reorganize and expand immigration and customs enforcement and create and federalize airport security with TSA? That is what happened.
Government has a hammer to fix problems that often require a scalpel. If the last few decades have shown us anything it is that government will create a hammer at every opportunity. Very expensive hammers that are of questionable effectiveness at fixing the original problem and often create additional problems by their own weight.
Respectfully, we would all do well to remember this. The free market and lawsuits for defective products create the best incentive of all for corporations to get things right, not a very expensive government hammer.