[jfd1776]

On this day in 1996, a tragic plane crash in the Everglades made ValuJet a household name, and hammered home to the business community the importance of the safe transport of hazardous materials.

The government produces far too many regulations, so destructive and so costly, that it's easy to forget that there are indeed a few genuinely good and important regulations out there, like a diamond lost in the middle of a truckload of mulch.

My thoughts on the matter are in my Illinois Review column this week, if you're interested, here:

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/05/navigating-the-hazards-of-an-industrial-age.html

John F. Di Leo

[rlmorel]

One of the slanders of conservatives is that we are against all government regulations.

We aren’t. Those people are anarchists, the political brethren of liberals.

Most conservatives believe in limited government (and therefore some regulations) and abhor excessive regulation.

[rlmorel]

And thank you for posting the entire thing.

[JRandomFreeper]

An insurance company like Lloyds could perform the same regulatory functions with all of the technical data, and not involve government.

I don't think government is the answer. Government is about pointing guns at people to get them to comply.

johnny

[xjcsa]

Great post.

I worked for several years in the airline industry, and the ValuJet accident was always a major part of discussion in Dangerous Goods classes (which we took annually).

[1010RD]

Wouldn’t insurance contracts, torts, and a compliance framework function better than government in this area? My concern is that once government starts regulating it just can’t stop.

SCUBA diving is largely unregulated and risky, but commercial interest - you don’t want your customers dying - and lawsuits combined with insurance regs and privately set standards keep it safe. Self-regulation can work, given the correct incentives, transparency and tort law.