[ RadSafe ] Too much GOVERNMENT regulation

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

"What specific damage was done by profit motive (vs political
regulation)?"

Fraud, embezzlement, nepotism, cronyism, favoritism, bribery, and a
variety of other corruptions are driven by the profit motive and, to the
extent they are controlled at all, are controlled by regulations.  And
it your rebuttal is, "But some of those are against the law!", well,
"the law" is a set of regulations.  

Some people contend there is a difference between actions a person
controlling the action of a company do to enrich themselves vs. the
things they do to theoretically enrich the company (I as "theoretically"
because it often turns out they had their eye firmly on their own
benefit, regardless of their claimed motive).  To the extent this is
true, regulations can (and should) protect the long term interests of
both the immediate owners (the shareholders) and the owners of the
entire economic system (the stakeholders) from actions that are
excessively short sighted and not adequately risk adverse.  

And since you bring it up, "reputation" only provides regulation if the
persons in question believe they will get caught, or do not believe they
can steal enough before they get caught to not have to go back to that
well again.    

  

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Howard
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 12:18 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Too much GOVERNMENT regulation

Peter, 
What specific damage was done by profit motive (vs political
regulation)?
Freedomnomics describes explicit studies showing surprisingly strong 
regulation by reputation 
(and indirect result on profits).
Howard Long

On Mar 23, 2011, at 4:57 AM, Peter Collopy <chaosforthefuture at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Having been in the Nuclear Power business since the early days (
1970s) I can tell you from first hand experience that allowing the
utilties and manufacturers a free hand would be disasterous. That is not
to say they most in the industry do not mean well; the drive for profits
is simply too strong an incentive and allows all sorts of self
rationalizing when making decisions on safety. It is somewhat akin to
what happened when the banks were deregulated with the result of a major
economic collapse in our country. The risks were known (read "Too Big to
Fail" its quite illuminating) by JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers etc but they
were so afraid of being left out of the wind falls being created by the
derivatives and sub-prime loan markets they simply wished it away.
>  
> I would agree that too much regulation is incredibly suffocating and
not good for safety or the economy. The trick is to find the right
balance - its real hard and we all have opinions on whether the poridge
is too cold or too hot. One thing I do support is the periodic review of
regulations so those that did not accomplish their intended purpose or
are found to be overly burdensome are eliminated and tweaks are made in
the useful regulations to ensure their effectiveness. One big problem
with OSHA and EPA is that once a regulation is approved its almost
impossible to change it or eliminate it.. Kind of runs against the grain
of a "Continuous Improvement Process."
>  
> I personally don't like posting my political opinions on this board
(and I should be castigated for it-don't worry I will punish myself by
watching Twighlight) but in this case I felt in necessary to weigh in
based on personal experience within the nuclear power community,
>  
>  
> Pete C
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Peter Collopy, CIH, CHP, CSP 
> Director, Entropy Control 
> Chaos for the Future 
> 129 Second Street
> Troy, NY 12180
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