Jul 29, 2010
tedr: ericmortensen: Ralph Nader is An Unreasonable Man. I can’t recommend this documentary highly enough.  I haven’t seen it yet. But absolutely will. A wizard I know described such individuals as Privatized Government Regulators. When capitalism fails by driving products into the market place that abuse it’s customers, such people use capitalism (i.e. lawsuits with large verdicts) to rectify the situation. I’m unclear on how capitalism “failed” in this instance. The tort system is designed to allow this kind of “private regulation” — it’s the reason why there’s such a thing as punitive damages. The system didn’t “fail,” it worked by allowing Nader to correct wrongs in court. And companies behave better now because they know that they’ll get sued by either a government regulator or a “private regulator” if they behave wrongly. That’s the system working.

tedr:

ericmortensen:

Ralph Nader is An Unreasonable Man.

I can’t recommend this documentary highly enough. 

I haven’t seen it yet. But absolutely will. A wizard I know described such individuals as Privatized Government Regulators. When capitalism fails by driving products into the market place that abuse it’s customers, such people use capitalism (i.e. lawsuits with large verdicts) to rectify the situation.

I’m unclear on how capitalism “failed” in this instance. The tort system is designed to allow this kind of “private regulation” — it’s the reason why there’s such a thing as punitive damages. The system didn’t “fail,” it worked by allowing Nader to correct wrongs in court. And companies behave better now because they know that they’ll get sued by either a government regulator or a “private regulator” if they behave wrongly. That’s the system working.

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