Thursday, March 27, 2014

Getting what we pay for

A major part of the problem is that people want the government to protect them, but don't want to pay for it.

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/767823119896953



[I copied the text in case the Facebook post is no longer available]

From Robert Reich on Facebook Mar. 26, 2014

So why exactly did GM fail to order a recall earlier of 1.6 million cars linked to at least a dozen deaths? You can chalk it up to greed and irresponsibility, certainly, but there’s another reason, too. The staff of the government office responsible for monitoring safety defects in cars – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- was cut by one-fifth from its level more than a decade ago, and its budget has stagnated even as the number of registered cars in the U.S. has risen. So investigators just don’t have the resources to keep up.

It’s another example of how fiscal austerity has led to the silent deregulation of America. Legislation enacted in 2000 after the infamous Ford Explorer SUV tire recall was supposed to have boosted the agency’s investigation team. Just the opposite has occurred.

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