Quote (cambovenzi @ Apr 1 2014 02:11pm)

Something bad happened.
We better implement even more oppressive and economically disastrous regulations on top of the countless ones we already have.

Quote (cambovenzi @ Apr 2 2014 12:12am)

Even the tiniest bit of research on the subject would tell you that the unbelievably long list of regulations we already have prevents citizens from doing all kinds of peaceful things and adds huge costs to business that could have been spent differently improving people's lives. This effect compounds as time goes on as more and more wealth that would have been created can not be built off of.
According to one study in the Journal of Economic Growth our annual output  is "28 percent of what it would have been had regulation remained at its 1949 level."
Adding more and more and more regulations in an effort to completely stamp out all perceived wrongdoing will just worsen the effects.

But hey lets have a police state where you cant even open a lemonade stand or buy a lightbulb or take a dump without government approval from expensive bureaucrats.
After all, we have to stop all 'crime'. Don't we?

Quote (duffman316 @ Apr 3 2014 03:57pm)

i take it you'rein favor of abolishing the regulatory bodies involved in food, energy transportation, education, telecommunications, etc.?

don't suppose you'd like living under the rule of standard oil ?

Quote (duffman316 @ Apr 1 2014 04:04pm)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/gm-boss-mary-barra-grilled-by-congress-over-recalls-1.2593930





as usual good business sense prevails in the dilemma over absorbing the cost of a recall vs saving lives

what we need to do is get pesky regulators out of the way and let the free market decide where to set acceptable levels of loss of life in the production of goods and services

any car company that produces low quality cars that kill people would naturally be driven out of business as people flock to companies that are less likely to cause serious harm or injury with their products

Quote (Santara @ Apr 3 2014 06:19pm)

First and foremost, the switches aren't "faulty," they're prone to failure when abused. This is only an issue because some people feel the need to carry 4 pounds of shit on their keychain, dangling Lord knows how far, and that it's possible that the dangling keychain can be pulled on - which does what ignitions switches do when you put torque on them in that direction - they turn the car off. A car turned off suddenly has no power steering assist, or power brake assist, etc, and a surprised driver might have no idea how to react to it (cars even shut off automatically if you do something like strike a large pothole, a designed safety feature intended to stop fuel flow in a collision). This is a case of God-damned ambulance chasers going too fucking far when their clients were stupid.

Quote

According to one entry of the chronology in the memo, officials of Delphi, which supplied the ignition switches to the recalled GM cars, told committee investigators that GM had approved the part, even though sample testing of the ignition switch torque was below the original specifications set by the automaker.

The committee, according to aides, does not know GM's thinking on why it may have approved a part that did not meet all specifications.

One aide, who asked not to be identified, noted that there were 60 specifications for the switch and it is not clear what the significance is of one specification being below-standard. That is one of the questions the committee intends to ask in hearings.

Quote (cambovenzi @ Apr 3 2014 06:02pm)

http://mises.org/daily/5274/100-Years-of-Myths-about-Standard-Oil

Oh you lowered prices for me? MONOPOLOY!!!! POLICE!!!! SOMEONE STOP THEM!!! NAOW!!!
HIDE YO KIDS THEY TAKIN OVER THE COUNTRY OUT HERE!!



Special interests have huge influence right now and we're already living under the rule of a bunch of scumbag politicians that restrict millions of peaceful things we can do.
Some big businesses often love regulations because they can squeeze out competition and be subsidized by government.

Quote (duffman316 @ Apr 4 2014 10:08am)

a couple of things

-gm is a very experienced auto maker, if they're doing a recall it either means they know they're in the wrong or the finances on the situation favor a recall as less costly
-supposing people do attach too much weight to their key chain, you would think there'd be a substantially large number of vehicles with this problem but that does not appear to be the case ~ hints that gm did something out of the ordinary

some more digging around and sure enough, they approved something that didn't meet their own standards

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gm-recall-documents-paint-an-unsettling-picture-1.2592020

Quote (Santara @ Apr 4 2014 10:29am)

...or they're doing a recall that is more costly but are succumbing to bad publicity from the underinformed.
It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for approval of a part that doesn't meet all the initial specifications, because cost analysis might deem the initial specifications too costly to put into production. In ordinary circumstances, an ignition switch is not going to have the same safety rigor applied to it that an ABS modulator or SIR coil will. You can be damned sure that if a carmaker was putting cars onto the road where these types of parts didn't pass their own muster, there would be justifiable outcry. What we have with these ignition switches is an unfortunate set of limited circumstances where the engineering wasn't idiot-proof enough.

Quote (duffman316 @ Apr 4 2014 12:29pm)

this would be cutting corners and is generally supported by poor cost analysis that fails to take into consideration long term consequences

unfortunately it is in line with the short sighted standards by which the business departments of large corporations operate

it's not so much a case of we can't afford to do this but rather a case of look at what we accomplished and how little it costs