Your Money AND Your Life

So let's say a handful corporations who make safety equipment, all decided - independent of one another - that they were going to start using less expensive materials in these safety products. Cheaper plastics and rubbers and textiles etc., because, after all, they are trying to make a profit. And, they figure cheaper materials will help them do this. Then let's say some research was out there that these cheaper materials would make the equipment less safe - in some cases drastically - but these companies simply ignored this research or didn't bother to make themselves aware of it. THEN, let's say the industry in which these companies operate was completely unregulated, and companies were not even required to tell anyone that they changed their materials, or what materials they were using in their products at all. AND, let's say the average consumer, upon inspecting the equipment, would rightfully assume the materials were the same materials that had always been used in the equipment, and that they had grown quite accustomed to. Finally, let's say people started getting seriously hurt, and even killed, due to these changes in materials, until finally folks in the press uncovered this plot and shared this information with the public. What then?

Though it's impossible to know it's awfully easy to assume that the outrage would spread from coast to coast, and grow deep into the earth at how these greedy corporations were putting lives at risk for the sake of higher stock prices and bigger executive bonuses; that they needed to be regulated and that these practices had to stop immediately. Congress would convene hearings, and the news would be all abuzz.

Well, something remarkably similar to that has happened in recent years: People have died because other people decided to create dangerous and life-threatening conditions for the simple reason of bringing in extra cash. Only this time, the people do the life-risking-for-cash are government bureaucrats, not corporate managers.

It's amazing really: states and towns are so desperate for cash after horrible fiscal mismanagement, that they have decided to shorten yellow lights,and then set up cameras to catch and ticket anyone who runs a (early) red light. You don't need studies and research to understand that shortening yellow lights is dangerous. But see if that mattered to the bureaucrats and politicians who had shortfalls to cover.

Greed is greed. Even when the money doesn't go into their own pockets, people, if given the power, will try to remove it from the pockets of others. Like the city that starts aggressively enforcing meter violations within minutes of the time expiring, or towns that set artificially low speed limits and have a cop car off in the bushes ready to pounce, governments are greedy, even to the point of putting lives at risk. The yellow light example might be extreme, but it's also wide-spread and not because of some nationwide conspiracy. The common thread? Greed... and government.