Government Regulation Creates Invisible Victims
The National Transportation Safety Board has again recommended that airlines require a separate seat for all children, regardless of age, eliminating the current practice of permitting children under the age of 2 to fly for free on the lap of a parent. Will mandating child restraint systems make air travel safer? The answer is probably yes but that's the visible.
Having to purchase an extra airplane ticket, some families will opt to drive to their destination instead. Thus, mandated CRS will force some families to switch to a less safe method of travel and some highway fatalities will represent the invisible victims of NTSB policy. By the way, if parents wanted a greater measure of safety for their infant, it's available to them right now. They can purchase a seat and seat restraint for their infant.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is charged with ensuring that drugs are safe and effective. Drugs must meet FDA approval before they can be marketed. FDA officials can make two kinds of errors. They can approve a drug that has unanticipated, dangerous side effects that might cause illness and death. Or, they can err by either not approving or causing huge delays in the marketing of a safe and effective drug. Statistically, these are known as the Type I and Type II errors.
FDA officials have a bias toward erring on the side of over-caution. If FDA officials err on the side of under-caution, approving an unsafe drug, they are attacked by the media, patient groups and investigated by Congress. Their victims, sick and dead people, are highly visible. If FDA officials err on the side of over caution, keeping a safe and effective drug off the market, who's to know? The victims are invisible.
If you conclude that FDA officials have a bias toward errors that create invisible victims, who don't know whom to blame for their illness or death, step to the head of the class. Particularly egregious examples are: The FDA's 10-year delay in approving alprenolol, a beta-blocker, sold for three years in Europe, cost more than 10,000 lives per year. The three-year delay in the approval of misoprostol, a drug for the treatment of gastric bleeding that cost between 8,000 and 15,000 lives per year. The lag in the approval of streptokinase for the treatment of occluded coronary arteries cost more than 10,000 lives per year.
FDA erring on the side of over-caution makes the average cost of bringing a drug to the market close to $1 billion. When an FDA official proudly announces the approval of a major new drug, someone should ask him: If this drug is going to start saving lives tomorrow, how many people died yesterday, last week, last month or last year waiting for the drug to be approved? A drug company CEO could give you the answer if he weren't fearful of FDA retaliation.
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) represents Congress' way to force manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient cars. Manufacturers meet CAFE standards by producing lighter weight and hence less crash-worthy cars. According to a Brookings Institution study, a 500-lb weight reduction of the average car increased annual highway fatalities by 2,200-3,900 and serious injuries by 11,000 and 19,500 per year. A National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration study demonstrated that reducing a vehicle's weight by only 100 pounds increased the fatality rate by as much as 5.63 percent for light cars, 4.70 percent for heavier cars and 3.06 percent for light trucks. These rates translated into additional traffic fatalities of 13,608 for light cars, 10,884 for heavier cars and 14,705 for light trucks between 1996 and 1999.
Congressmen have full knowledge of these life and death statistics but doing the bidding of environmentalists and other interest groups is more important than American lives. There ought to be a way to make the invisible victims of Congress visible.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. Please contact your local newspaper editor if you'd like to see Walter Williams' columns in your hometown paper.
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Comments
He hit the nail on the head
Submitted by bigtimer on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 1:24pm.
He hit the nail on the head with just this~
"Congressmen have full knowledge of these life and death statistics but doing the bidding of environmentalists and other interest groups is more important than American lives. There ought to be a way to make the invisible victims of Congress visible."
Anyone think this will ever happen though...I'm not holding my breath.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
Probably not
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 1:37pm.
"Will mandating child restraint systems make air travel safer?"
Probably not, as it not small children that are causing airliner "accidents." They are caused by adults who make mistakes, when it's not mechanical failure, so no amount of child restraints will make air travel safer for anyone. All it will do is add additional costs to every air traveler, for the sake of the appearance of safety. It's no different than painting a fake emergency exit on the wall of a room. It's cosmetic.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Government regulation is about to creat one very visible victim
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 1:56pm.
The United States of America.Vote for the American in November
But their intentions are
Submitted by mattm on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 2:00pm.
But their intentions are good, so it's OK. Not like those evil, greedy corporations who have to stoop to offering customers what they want just to make a profit....
It's just like welfare. Sure it traps people in a perpetual state of dependency, but at least they have televisions.
If the mine accident happened in America...
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 2:27pm.
The capsule would still be waiting for some, EPA, green carbon blessing...OSHA horse ok'd...
Then the capsule will be to big to fit the mine shaft, and to small to fit a human inside...
You Didn't Build That.
Bottom Line?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 7:24pm.
A materially superior product is a wonderful thing.
But we apparently still have regulators trying to halt the use of di-hydrogen monoxide because so many people fall victim of it every year.
Cool, Yeah, that dihydrogen monoxide stuff sure gets around
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 8:34pm.
Every water system in America is contaminated with it, as are all of our lakes and streams, too, and most don't even realize it. -DaveVote for the American in November
Yea,
Submitted by Boudin on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 8:44pm.
You guys have me choking on mine. : )
Boudin,
Submitted by Dave. on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 8:18pm.
About 10 or so years back, Neal Boortz started a rumor that the Atlanta water system was contaminated with dihydrogen monoxide. No joke, the head dude that ran the place called in to the show and swore up and down that there was absolutely no dihydrogen monoxide anywhere in Atlanta's water system. I was laughing so hard, I nearly ran off the road. -DaveVote for the American in November
That's funny
Submitted by KC Mulville on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 2:51am.
This is why chief executives still need secretaries, even in the age of word processors and online schedulers. Secretaries prevent bosses from doing things that will embarrass the boss. If bosses could do everything by themselves online, nothing would stop (or slow down) a boss from making a public jackass of himself.
One side note: would it be possible to market dihydrogen monoxide in powder form? You could sell it in handy jars, and all you'd need to do is ...
I say f**k it,
Submitted by Mestilf on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 2:59am.
Just repeal all regulation, let the free market do whatever it wants. Because market efficiency is much more important than the common good!
I love how your bloggers here point out the obvious and pretend they just exposed some grand knowledge that no one else was aware of. Yeah dude, some regulation makes things cost more, and for some people, it doesn't always work. But we need to have some middle man there to ensure we can maximize public safety while minimizing private sector costs. This is LITERALLY taught in microeconomics 101, and they point out very quickly that some loss in market efficiency is worth public safety and services. The key is finding what works and what doesn't and for what cost.
Invisible victims
Submitted by KC Mulville on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 3:12am.
The reason you shift the danger to invisible victims rather than visible ones is that the visible ones can sue you. Statistically probable victims may be more numerous, but real ones can hire a lawyer.
A warning, though, about car weight: I think we have to be careful. The statistic is relative. When two cars crash, usually the lighter ones lose and take more damage. A lighter car may be more vulnerable to crashes, but only if the other cars stay the same weight. If all the cars get lighter, then no one car gets any more dangerous than it was before. Lessening the car weight is only more dangerous if the other cars stay the same. Since the CAFE is an economic standard that motivates every vehicle to lose weight, it isn't entirely fair to say that CAFE increases danger. CAFE standards may be a misguided idea, but not necessarily for this reason.
Sure, a 2010 Camry is more vulnerable in a crash with an 18-wheeler than a 1953 Ford, but the 1953 Ford wouldn't survive against an 18-wheeler either.
Not to mention,
Submitted by Mestilf on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 3:21am.
That as cars become lighter, they become more efficient saving people money. The term "invisible victims" is just to ambiguous to use to try and call all regulations bad. Victim of what? Being at more risk to die of a crash? Or are they the victim of saving money on fuel and maintenance costs?