04-13-2024, 08:41 PM
(04-13-2024, 08:09 PM)montana Wrote: Over the last 10 years- really the last 20- rail equipment inspection and maintenance regulations have been gutted...
I suggest this is a consequence of our own inability as a community of citizens to hold our regulators to any standard. We've allowed the industry to dictate who makes the rules, and as a result their never-ending drive to horde money has rendered the public a mute 'externality'. Politicians love to posture that this is something they will 'fix', but they never seem to fix it at all. To them fixing it means getting something "political' in return, be that for their party or themselves... the problem to be fixed is just 'an opportunity.'
As usual, the people compensate by improving the tools of their trade, the skillsets they bring to bear on the problem... meanwhile the politician class "uses" the deficiency as leverage for their careers and posterity. Since corporate money equals 'speech' in our politicians' estimation ... more money means more 'leverage.' Are we surprised that this is one offshoot of corporate personhood? The ability to influence governance was meant for citizens... not businesses.
