[Rhodes22-list] Minneapolis Bridge - Politics - is your bridge next?

[Robert Skinner]

Condensed form:

* Stuff happens.  There are no guarantees in life.

* When it does, we need to keep our heads, focus, and learn.

* Perfect safety costs infinite money.

/Robert

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ekroposki wrote:
> 
> This is for those who want to understand how the bridge collapsed:
> 
> The Wrong Lessons of the Bridge Collapse
> By Brad Edmonds
> 
> "Imagine how safe we'd feel if the people who inspect and approve bridges
> could actually lose their jobs and their fortunes if they make a fatal
> mistake!"
> 
> The collapse of a bridge in rush-hour Minneapolis must be well known by
> nearly everyone in the United States by now. Whenever anyone dies, it's a
> tragedy; when many die, and expensive property (dozens of automobiles) is
> lost, that's obviously a tragedy. When all this loss of life and wealth
> happens because government bureaucrats did their jobs poorly or correctly,
> that's a preventable and costly tragedy - bought at the expense of many
> taxpayers who likely would have done other things with their money than pay
> those bureaucrats. Remember, those who might have done other things with
> their money include the dead victims.
> 
> If the bureaucrats did their jobs correctly, following the rules, observing
> the bridge, and properly making the decision not to repair it when decision
> time came, that of course heaps more tragedy on top of everything else.
> There's nobody we can blame, as courts won't hold the government responsible
> when it makes decisions that are correct by the rules yet cost innocent
> lives.
> 
> So there's plenty of tragic news, and we've heard about it so much lately
> because there are many impressive photos and movie clips. You tube and other
> such websites have Americans running around every day with tiny electronic
> gadgets hoping for something newsworthy to record and sell, and this is a
> good thing: we can get facts about crimes and accidents, including crimes by
> the uniformed thugs our taxes pay to protect us.
> 
> And yet - and yet, with the endless coverage, commentary, video clips, and
> intrusive, tasteless interviews of grieving family members, nobody in the
> mainstream media seems to be getting the right messages from this. Rather,
> the messages are all self-serving government propaganda. Here are some of
> the correct messages we should be getting:
> 
> Part of the reason this bridge collapse is so newsworthy is that it is rare.
> That is good news, and a correct message. The next time I cross a concrete
> bridge (as they all are in Alabama); I'll feel better than I once did: A
> bridge collapsed somewhere, and it was such a startling event that everyone
> is covering it endlessly. The incorrect message everyone else is getting is
> that the nation's infrastructure is crumbling.
> 
> Imagine if a Wal-Mart fell in on customers, killing them. What would be the
> reaction? The CEOs of Wal-Mart would be strung up. Certainly there would not
> be any public moaning about how the roofs of our nation's shopping centers
> are in disrepair. The blame would be focused and intense, with no excuses
> tolerated.
> 
> So why do we vaguely bemoan our "crumbling infrastructure?" My
> conspiracy-sniffing guess is that government and the mainstream media love
> to frighten the masses. Frightened masses seek information for their
> protection, and the mainstream media make money from advertisers when
> frightened masses seek information. Government loves a frightened populace
> because such a populace is willing to hand over more power and money to the
> government, further entrenching government employees in their overpaid,
> under worked jobs.
> 
> Another wrong message: we need more government to solve this problem.
> President Bush is already promising more federal money to repair America's
> supposedly crumbling infrastructure. Remember that any federal money that
> goes to the states carries with it mandates that states hand over more power
> to the federal government. In the 1980s, remember, states were forced to
> hand over more police power to the feds in exchange for continued streams of
> federal highway money. The usurpation of states' rights came in the specific
> form of federally mandated drinking laws, making the legal drinking age 21
> in every state, while the federally mandated minimum age at which you could
> be thrown into battle by your benevolent leaders remained at 18.
> 
> The correct message from the bridge collapse, which was allowed to happen
> with full knowledge of the bridge's structural problems, is that government
> cannot get the job done. The government lacks the incentive to fix problems.
> And even with the incentive, there is a core calculation problem associated
> with prioritizing the use of resources. This is where private markets excel.
> They are not perfect but resources are used efficiently to solve the most
> urgent demands as revealed in the system of profit and loss. The government
> lacks this mechanism, so everything becomes arbitrary at best and political
> at worst.
> 
> "Nearly every newsworthy tragedy we see would be less common if those who
> could have prevented it were subject to the harsh and impartial oversight of
> the free market."
> 
> Too much government was the cause of the problem; adding even more
> government will inevitably make the problem worse. I guarantee the
> additional money will go to the same old government contractors - builders
> and engineers - some predictable percentage of whom will offer kickbacks to
> inspectors and bureaucrats to get favor over other builders and engineers.
> Once a government official is on the illegal gravy train, inspections never
> become more intensive.
> 
> The correct solution: get government completely out of the business of
> building bridges. Private engineers and inspectors, completely independent
> of the power of government to insulate them from the consequences of shoddy
> work, will inspect with the zeal of (most) private accounting and law firms,
> who jealously guard their reputations for excellence. Imagine how safe we'd
> feel if the people who inspect and approve bridges could actually lose their
> jobs and their fortunes if they make a fatal mistake!
> 
> We should all learn this lesson from the bridge collapse: nearly every
> newsworthy tragedy we see would be less common if those who could have
> prevented it were subject to the harsh and impartial oversight of the free
> market. At the same time, nearly every tragedy we see will result in
> endlessly broadcast exhortations that we eliminate more of that free market
> and replace it with more of the same government that allowed the tragedy to
> happen in the first place. The same counterarguments presented above will
> apply the next time you see a newsworthy tragedy. If enough of us begin
> using them, perhaps someday we'll start learning these correct lessons.
> 
> Brad Edmonds, author of There's a Government in Your Soup, writes from
> Alabama. See his Mises.org archive. Send him mail.
> 
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-- 
Robert Skinner  "Squirrel Haven" 
Gorham, Maine         04038-1331
s/v "Little Dipper" & "Edith P."