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Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

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Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#31

Post by Macha »

sclarisse wrote: post #22
candiddevmike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make these companies government owned and operate them like the post office.

Not sure if adding sovereign immunity to the situation would help. Managers take shortcuts to get ahead in a lot of situations; consider, for instance, Chernobyl. It’s one of the reasons I think the “prioritizing profits” narrative rings hollow. Any profits they would have preserved by not-stopping for the first hotbox detector? Already burned by the costs of the closure and the response so far. If anything, chasing…

It's more so chasing short term profits. How many of the executives and decision makers responsible for the issues of the rail workers have moved on and don't need to deal with the consequences of this? Sure, it sucks for the final set of shareholders and execs holding the bill, but capitalism rewarded all their predecessors.

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#32

Post by ClumsyPilot »

sclarisse wrote: post #22
candiddevmike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make these companies government owned and operate them like the post office.

Not sure if adding sovereign immunity to the situation would help. Managers take shortcuts to get ahead in a lot of situations; consider, for instance, Chernobyl. It’s one of the reasons I think the “prioritizing profits” narrative rings hollow. Any profits they would have preserved by not-stopping for the first hotbox detector? Already burned by the costs of the closure and the response so far. If anything, chasing…

> Not sure if adding sovereign immunity to the situation would help.

It would help me rationalise why no decisions maker ever goes to jail after their decisions kill people, even when they are private companies

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#33

Post by ClumsyPilot »

bko wrote: post #23
candiddevmike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make these companies government owned and operate them like the post office.

If it's state controlled and an accident happens and there is a govt investigation, do you think it'll be more stern than one on a private company? Do you think enforcement of rules is stricter when enforced in house? I don't see the reasoning as to why state run services would be somehow safer. The state should set out the rules and enforce strictly

Do you feel like the investigation into Boeing Max disaster was stern and everyone responsible was punished?

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#34

Post by zelphirkalt »

BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #14

> Residents are concerned about long-term effects of low-grade exposure. > “There’s all that smoke and all those chemicals in there,” said Mason Shields, who lives in East Palestine and visited an aid center outside the evacuation zone. “I’m wondering if it’s even going to be safe for people to return within the next week or month or however long.” Generally speaking, I read the news because I want to learn facts abo…

Peoples' feelings and sentiments about things that are happening are also facts, and none too unimportant, since feelings and sentiments are often the basis for their decisions or their government's decisions, which results in new facts.

Yes, we want factual reporting, but that people have emotions and fears is also a fact, that has influence on future events.

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#35

Post by 88913527 »

Frost1x wrote: post #7
h2odragon wrote: post #3

Recall when there was an imminent Rail Workers' strike in the news? Which Congress bravely stepped in and prevented? Weren't safety issues like this part of the workers' complaints? There were multiple sightings of axles on fire before the accident: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2023/02/10/...

I suspect we're seeing more and more of these issues due to corner cutting in various industries. Air travel has already been a tight margin industry and take at look at all the air related issues we've seen recently, from FAA systems down to mass cancelations due to infrastructure to the recent runway conflicts and accidents we've seen. Speaking from anecdotal experience, over the years this constant push for more c…

Not that I disagree with you, but me and many others are planning our retirements accounts around assumptions of 8-9% growth. Stock market returns and real economic productivity aren't the same thing, but I think it would be deeply challenging for us to change course. Low growth creates a lot of new issues which are debatably worse than the axles-on-fire problem, but this is a conterfactual argument.

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#36

Post by YPCrumble »

beowulfey wrote: post #13

Although the reddit comments are interesting, it may be better to change this link to the original linked AP news article.

Reddit (and now HN) is the only source that shows this on the front page - I wouldn't have heard about it otherwise. Corporate news outlets have kept it from the front page.

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#37

Post by colpabar »

h2odragon wrote: post #3

Recall when there was an imminent Rail Workers' strike in the news? Which Congress bravely stepped in and prevented? Weren't safety issues like this part of the workers' complaints? There were multiple sightings of axles on fire before the accident: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2023/02/10/...

Don’t worry - norfolk southern, the company responsible, gave the town a whopping $25k to help out. Five dollars for everyone!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/norfolk-southern-giving-25-00...

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#38

Post by JustSomeNobody »

jnovek wrote: post #24
candiddevmike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make these companies government owned and operate them like the post office.

Postmaster General Louis Dejoy was joking only a week ago that he'd like to see the Postal Regulatory Committee disappear. He's spent his ~3 years in charge cutting USPS to the bone. Government control does not necessarily mean oversight.

> He's spent his ~3 years in charge cutting USPS to the bone.

That was his mandate when getting hired.

If you want to prove government is inefficient, hire people to make it inefficient.

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#39

Post by jghn »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #2

It would actually be interesting to take a vacation to the media bubble of someone who thinks that there is not a huge problem there. Painting in broad strokes, the distrust is there for the "first, distrust corporations" left and the "first, distrust the media and big government" right. I don't imagine there are many people wholly outside those camps, at least not on something like this.

Both sides correctly believe the big corporations work against their side. However they both incorrectly believe those corps work for the other side

Re: Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern

#40

Post by CPLX »

Frost1x wrote: post #7
h2odragon wrote: post #3

Recall when there was an imminent Rail Workers' strike in the news? Which Congress bravely stepped in and prevented? Weren't safety issues like this part of the workers' complaints? There were multiple sightings of axles on fire before the accident: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2023/02/10/...

I suspect we're seeing more and more of these issues due to corner cutting in various industries. Air travel has already been a tight margin industry and take at look at all the air related issues we've seen recently, from FAA systems down to mass cancelations due to infrastructure to the recent runway conflicts and accidents we've seen. Speaking from anecdotal experience, over the years this constant push for more c…

Maybe they can be met by reducing the massive siphoning off of wealth from the business sector that happens when monopoly profits accrue.
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