Bureaucrat Man to the Rescue!

In Ohio, a huge train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, sending noxious substances into the air and water.  So Ohio governor Mike DeWine took to the podium and declared that “Congressional action” is necessary to prevent future rail disasters.  Joining the chorus is Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, who said that government must do a better job of promoting safety.

This is a pretty predictable response.  Whenever a train derails, or an airplane crashes, or tainted food is ingested, et cetera, et cetera, the talking heads come out and say that preventing mishaps is a job for government!  The logic goes something like this:  greedy profiteers clearly cannot be trusted to provide a safe product, therefore we need more laws, more regulations, more enforcement, more prosecution, more penalties, more inspections, spend more money - whatever it takes! 

Turkish government was too small.

It's a global phenomenon, of course.  In Turkey, a recent powerful earthquake caused massive building collapse, killing tens of thousands of people.  The political response is that this death and destruction were caused by insufficient and/or unenforced building codes, thus government must take stronger control over the construction industry.

This concept is flawed from the get-go:  free enterprise remains the best, more efficient, most effective way to provide people with the goods and services they want and need.  Government-provided socialism is the worst.  Free enterprise works because it’s based on voluntary cooperation between parties, while government is based on forceful coercion.  The fuel that drives free enterprise is the profit motive.  Profit can be considered a measure of how well a business satisfies its customers and keeps expenses low.  But with government, “profit” does not apply, and so there is no built-in incentive to do a good job or reduce waste.

So - if free enterprise is so superior, then why do privately-run businesses experience train derailments, airplane crashes, tainted food, building collapses, and other such mishaps?  Does not the over-zealous quest for profit quash concern about product safety and quality?

First, realize that there NO profit in a crash or derailment or any ill event.  Mishaps and disasters cost owners and management huge bucks, destroy public goodwill, and kill careers. 

The main reason why the bad s*** happens is our age-old nemesis Human Error.  Yes, other factors such as Acts of Nature may also be involved, but the fact is:  although we humans are capable of amazing things, we’re not perfect.  We make mistakes.

But hold on a minute:  trying to claim that putting government in control will prevent accidents ignores the fact that politicians and bureaucrats are humans, also.  Government employees are not gods.  They make mistakes with the best of us.

So what’s the best way to maximize safety and product quality?  Government or free market? 

Well, as mentioned above, accidents and mishaps do not generate profits, and cost the business dearly.  On the other side, when government creates some alphabet-soup bureau or agency or department who’s mission is, ostensibly, to prevent mishaps, what happens to them if it occurs anyway?  Loss of profit?  Loss of public goodwill?  Careers destroyed? 

Responding to a mishap.

Um, no.  In actuality, it’s just the opposite.  Politicians mount the podium and scream that this accident happened because government is too small, thus we need more laws, more bureaucracy, more, more, more!!  Agencies and departments get bigger budgets, bigger staffs, bigger offices, more paperwork, more power.  Promotions occur.  The sad fact is:  bureaucracy depends on the continuation of the very problem that it’s supposed to fix!  When you work at the Bureau of Prevention of Bad S*** (BPBS), the worse possible thing is for all Bad S*** to disappear forever.  It’s hard to justify your existence and budget when the very reason you exist does not exist.

Furthermore, whenever government creates some bureau tasked with promoting "quality", it creates a lot of negative consequences.  Innovation and creativity is stifled.  Blandness and conformity become the order of the day, instead of spontaneity and uniqueness.  Bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace, always several steps behind the latest technology. 

Promoting safety is a compromise.  It costs money to produce a safe, high-quality product, and it’s tough to find the right balance between quality and cost reduction.  Business owners and managers shed a lot of sweat trying to figure out how best to do things and solve problems.  But the entirety of human history can be summed up as follows: people are always figuring out better ways.  The nice thing about free enterprise is that those who do figure out better solutions get rewarded with bigger profits. 

Business entrepreneur, the REAL hero!

Yes, safety and accident prevention are critically important.  But don’t be hornswoggled into sending Bureaucrat Man to the rescue; he does not have your best interest at heart.  Rather, the people who run trains and planes and build buildings for a living have far better incentives to actually fix the problem.