Discussion for article #222955
For this to happen, you need a corps of expertise in the various fields being regulated that isn’t ultimately co-opted by the industries being regulated. Which means (among many other things) bigger budgets for the regulatory agencies. Good luck. You’re also going to need larger fines, or some other kind of punishment that directly affects the decisionmakers. Because $35 million is what, the profits on six months’ production?
When breaking the law leads to unnecessary deaths of human beings, if you’re not an executive of a large corporation you usually go to jail. If an executive was drunk and ran over someone in their GM car, they would be tried for manslaughter. How is it that no one in GM is criminally liable here?
A very important part of enforcing regulations is to enforce them on imported products, otherwise all you do is drive jobs overseas and cause the importation of even shoddier products…
I’d really like to be able to buy bolts at Home Depot again that don’t snap when you tighten them down. Even better if they were made in USA instead of China.
No executives were held criminally responsible for the BP oil spill, Wall Street’s “robo-signing”, LIBOR, JPMorgan’s lies to the SEC or the Upper Big Branch mine disaster.
So why would you think that the Obama Justice Department would finally and suddenly hold GM executives to account?
In the absence of a sustained organized protest movement demanding criminal charges why would you believe, for even a moment, that anything would change?
Since no such protest movement exists (or is even being contemplated) why would the Democratic or Republican party break and betray their loyalty to Wall Street in defense of ordinary citizens?
Your great concern is noted.