Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
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Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
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Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#2Interesting, I had assumed they just didn’t know that lead was bad back then. What’s even weirder is how there are still people today who insist that banning leaded gasoline was an key example of government overreach.
Someone once was arguing this point to me and I just had to drop the topic because it was such a baffling stance.
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#3I've got a sneaking suspicion we ought to go through everything else Thomas MIdgley Jr. invented and ban it, just to be sure. Leaded gas, CFCs, and the contraption he killed himself with is a worrying pattern.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#4Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#5[flagged]
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#6> The most compelling option was actually ethanol.
But from the perspective of GM, Kitman wrote, ethanol wasn’t an option. It couldn’t be patented and GM couldn’t control its production. And oil companies like Du Pont "hated it," he wrote, perceiving it to be a threat to their control of the internal combustion engine.
I'm generally an avid beliver in free markets as an agent for positive change, so these types of "revelations" are really disheartening. What are the solutions to this? What governing system would have mass produced ethenol as the best antiknocker with no regard to the interests of top players?
Perhaps the government should open companies that are meant to lose money and are tax supported (for-loss conpanies) that compete with the industry with solutions that are good for the people but bad for business?
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#7Gasoline is poison in general though
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#8Interesting, I had assumed they just didn’t know that lead was bad back then. What’s even weirder is how there are still people today who insist that banning leaded gasoline was an key example of government overreach. Someone once was arguing this point to me and I just had to drop the topic because it was such a baffling stance.
Neil deGrasse Tyson said in an episode of Cosmos that even the Romans understood lead was dangerous, but it was a convenient metal to work with, so they used it anyway
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#9Interesting, I had assumed they just didn’t know that lead was bad back then. What’s even weirder is how there are still people today who insist that banning leaded gasoline was an key example of government overreach. Someone once was arguing this point to me and I just had to drop the topic because it was such a baffling stance.
> Someone once was arguing this point to me and I just had to drop the topic because it was such a baffling stance.
It is also possible that two of you were arguing about different things despite seemingly talking about the same one. For example, you could be arguing that preventing people poisoning by lead is good, where the other person were arguing that people should bear more responsibility instead of pushing it on the third-party.
I.e. I don't think the person you were arguing with was thinking "yeah, breathing lead is a good idea, let's fill the air with lead!". Perhaps I am too naive...
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#10> The most compelling option was actually ethanol. But from the perspective of GM, Kitman wrote, ethanol wasn’t an option. It couldn’t be patented and GM couldn’t control its production. And oil companies like Du Pont "hated it," he wrote, perceiving it to be a threat to their control of the internal combustion engine. I'm generally an avid beliver in free markets as an agent for positive change, so these types of "r…
We could call it hybrid capitalism, mix the free market vs government run non profit.