More Free Market Follies

[prole]

 

One way to liquidate excess inventory...

 

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

31 mins ago

 

NEW ORLEANS – New federal guidelines say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission released the guidelines Friday. They say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall must be removed.

 

About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall.

 

A large quantity of the drywall was imported during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes. It has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health problems.--from here.

[rob]

What does this have to do with the free market? Should there be a government drywall inspection minister to prevent this kind of thing?

 

Well, I guess that WOULD create jobs....

[Stonehead]

It doesn't seem the culprit is so much a free market ideology of competition as it is a globalist attitude where corporations are transnational and arbitration is determined by world bodies. On the other hand, the simplistic protectionist approach is a blunt weapon that's just as likely to harm us as help us.

 

As an economist, I am astonished that the American economics profession has no awareness whatsoever that the U.S. economy has been destroyed by the offshoring of U.S. GDP to overseas countries. U.S. corporations, in pursuit of absolute advantage or lowest labor costs and maximum CEO “performance bonuses,” have moved the production of goods and services marketed to Americans to China, India, and elsewhere abroad. When I read economists describe offshoring as free trade based on comparative advantage, I realize that there is no intelligence or integrity in the American economics profession.

 

Intelligence and integrity have been purchased by money. The transnational or global U.S. corporations pay multi-million dollar compensation packages to top managers, who achieve these “performance awards” by replacing U.S. labor with foreign labor. While Washington worries about “the Muslim threat,” Wall Street, U.S. corporations and “free market” shills destroy the U.S. economy and the prospects of tens of millions of Americans.

Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It

 

This is the progress that's touted as "the tide that lifts all boats".

[prole]

What does this have to do with the free market? Should there be a government drywall inspection minister to prevent this kind of thing?

 

Uh...yeah?

[olyclimber]

the free market should just run its course here. building codes and inspectors just prevent the chaff from being separated from the wheat.

[rob]

What does this have to do with the free market? Should there be a government drywall inspection minister to prevent this kind of thing?

 

Uh...yeah?

 

So, should EVERYTHING for sale have to be cleared by the gummint first? Or, just drywall?

[j_b]

huh, everything should obey basic safety guidelines, then for specifics cases like drywall or pillow stuffing a few lines in building codes and other regulations should make it illegal to sell toxic/dangerous product.

[olyclimber]

NANNY STATE!

[prole]

What does this have to do with the free market? Should there be a government drywall inspection minister to prevent this kind of thing?

 

Uh...yeah?

 

So, should EVERYTHING for sale have to be cleared by the gummint first? Or, just drywall?

 

Just drywall.

[j_b]

NANNY STATE!

 

the gobment should do human trials for my pillow stuffing.

[rob]

So, should EVERYTHING for sale have to be cleared by the gummint first? Or, just drywall?

 

Just drywall.

 

So, you're OK with a free market system for SOME things?

Edited April 2, 2010 by rob

[prole]

Just sex and weed.

[prole]

 

Building materials and codes? Not so much.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim]

What does this have to do with the free market? Should there be a government drywall inspection minister to prevent this kind of thing?

 

Uh...yeah?

 

So, should EVERYTHING for sale have to be cleared by the gummint first? Or, just drywall?

 

I think the free market should reign. Then we could get back to using the best material for the job such as radium for watch dials, asbestos for insulation, and DDT for those dang bugs.

[rob]

Building materials and codes? Not so much.

 

 

 

 

 

but we HAVE building codes and regulation. That's why all this shit is being recalled. So, again, I'm not sure what this has to do with free market economics.

[prole]

New federal guidelines say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

 

I'm not an expert, but I'm assuming that the offending drywall wasn't illegal when it was installed. It should've been.

[rob]

New federal guidelines say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

 

I'm not an expert, but I'm assuming that the offending drywall wasn't illegal when it was installed. It should've been.

 

Fair enough. Thank god we don't actually HAVE a pure free market system, so that we can actually take measures like this when we find stuff falling through the cracks.

[prole]

Unfortunately, more often than not, the "stuff falling through the cracks" in these situations is a bunch of dead people. Throwing a bunch of shit onto the market, letting the chips fall where they may, and picking up the pieces after a disaster happens in the name of freedom is retarded. This argument was mostly settled in the teens and '20's, you know, before Reagan and the like had their day in the sun.

Edited April 2, 2010 by prole

[Stonehead]

Do you apply this same logic beyond simple things such as drywall and plastic kids toys towards more complex things such as electronic control systems? Luckily there were not many casualties but there was a fairly high fear factor.

 

In a somewhat similar situation, a big unnamed software company could be faulted for pushing out a product chock full of bugs and vulnerabilities then waiting for the captive market to gobble it up while they throw out patches every Tuesday or so.

 

Really though, should the onus be on the producer or the consumer?

[prole]

Really though, should the onus be on the producer or the consumer?

The citizen.

[Stonehead]

Citizen, welcome to the pleasure palace (Fr. abattoir) .

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Really though, should the onus be on the producer or the consumer?

The citizen.

 

The proletariat.

[prole]

You may be happy defining yourself first and foremost as an empty vessel for Corporate America's endlessly repackaged horseshit (Am. products) but I'm not. Proletarian? Yeah, that's a bit more accurate.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

You may be happy defining yourself first and foremost as an empty vessel for Corporate America's endlessly repackaged horseshit (Am. products) but I'm not. Proletarian? Yeah, that's a bit more accurate.

 

If only you could institute some 5-year-plans!

[j_b]

Fair enough. Thank god we don't actually HAVE a pure free market system, so that we can actually take measures like this when we find stuff falling through the cracks.

 

"pure"? if it's not free and there is a role for government to play (R&D, infrastructure, subsidy, regulations, ..), why talk about "free markets"? isn't the terminology some kind of post WW2 propaganda?