'Free Market' Ideology Was a Root Cause of the Horrific Explosion in Texas

[one...two...tree 2,762]

On Thursday, I wrote about the central role that absolute free market libertarianism, as personified by the fictional John Galt, played in the horrific explosion in West [3], Texas that took the lives of fourteen people, most of whom were volunteer firefighters [4] fighting a fire at an unregulated fertilizer facility. We have now learned that the facility had a checkered history of ignoring regulations and had 1350 times more ammonium nitrate on hand than the amount that triggers a legal requirement to report the facility to Department of Homeland Security [5]. Of course, the facility's owner chose to ignore that regulation along with the many other regulations he chose to ignore. Sadly, some press accounts of the owner chose to focus more on his role as a church elder [6] (Update: he was even at Bible study when the fire broke out!) than on how his choice to flout regulations and good sense led directly to this tragedy. Whatever the cause of the original fire that eventually triggered the explosion, the plant owner's decision to maintain such a large and unreported amount of highly explosive ammonium nitrate so close to so many people played a huge role in how this tragedy played out.

Those deaths, and their roots in blatant disregard for government regulation in the belief that it harms business, are sadly just a small part of the larger picture of how free marketeers have corrupted the public marketplace of ideas to sow widespread death and destruction so that the "job creators" can go about their usual business of pocketing massive profits while refusing to make microscopic investments in small steps that would save many lives.

Remember the other, larger Massachusetts tragedy that killed at least 50 and injured 722 [7]? No? It was discovered last fall that New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts had been flaunting the rules on drug manufacturing and in their haste to reap maximum profits shipped out vials of steroids contaminated with fungus[8]. Thousands of patients around the country were injected with contaminated material and deaths and injuries followed.

You would think that since this tragedy played out last fall, the government would have realized the error of letting companies call themselves compounders when they are in reality manufacturing drugs on a large scale. Drug manufacturers are subject rigid FDA standards while compounders are regulated as if they are simple neighborhood pharmacies where the druggist might mix single vials of drugs into a form a local doctor has requested for individualized treatment of a patient. But no, because of massive lobbying on the part of compounders, who have become a huge presence because of the vast sums of money they can earn by working the margins of regulation, lawmakers pocket the proceeds of the lobbying and proclaim themselves powerless to harm the job creators as they bring these products to market. It should be viewed as no surprise then, that a different compounder, this time in Florida, now is recalling all of its products because it has been found to have been shipping product that was contaminated with bacteria. It is not yet known if any patients have been harmed by products from this compounder, but at least today's article on the recall was able to update the death toll from the Massachusetts compounder to 53[9].

The Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent search for the perpetrators also was touched by John Galt. Technology has existed for nearly 20 years that can make individual production lots of explosives traceable. But when it came time to implement the technology, the NRA and other gun enthusiasts managed to limit the inclusion of taggants to plastic explosives and to specifically exempt black powder [10] (otherwise known as gunpowder) from being required to be traceable. The Boston bombs used black powder. If investigators had been able to know within hours of the blast where and when the black powder was purchased, would they have been able to arrest the bombers sooner and without the subsequent death of one police officer and near death of another? The full shutdown of Boston on Friday would not have happened if the brothers had been arrested Wednesday or Thursday through tracing the black powder they purchased. But no, John Galt said that gunpowder manufacturers shouldn't have to spend the extra pennies to tag production lots and the inclusion of taggants in gunpowder infringes the rights of gun owners in a de facto registration of their ammunition, so society has to suffer the consequences of this freedom.

http://www.alternet....explosion-texas

[BaBamSam 239]

Dammit, the NRA was mentioned and this thread is about to be overrun by the gun debate.

I just hope the owner is rightfully punished for his neglect, which led to many deaths and extreme damage.

[Darnell 8,479]

This was an OSHA problem, buried deep in all the stuff is that one nugget.

The plant hadn't been inspected since the mid-80s, and they haven't been in compliance for safety standards since even before then.

Oh Well. Let the finger pointing begin, but IMO, with no feds scare , yearly, no one budgeted the simple replacement of known worn metal,

so it went blooie.

[lostinblue 1,989]

An article right out of Mao's playbook.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

On Thursday, I wrote about the central role that absolute free market libertarianism, as personified by the fictional John Galt, played in the horrific explosion in West [3], Texas that took the lives of fourteen people, most of whom were volunteer firefighters [4] fighting a fire at an unregulated fertilizer facility. We have now learned that the facility had a checkered history of ignoring regulations and had 1350 times more ammonium nitrate on hand than the amount that triggers a legal requirement to report the facility to Department of Homeland Security [5]. Of course, the facility's owner chose to ignore that regulation along with the many other regulations he chose to ignore. Sadly, some press accounts of the owner chose to focus more on his role as a church elder [6] (Update: he was even at Bible study when the fire broke out!) than on how his choice to flout regulations and good sense led directly to this tragedy. Whatever the cause of the original fire that eventually triggered the explosion, the plant owner's decision to maintain such a large and unreported amount of highly explosive ammonium nitrate so close to so many people played a huge role in how this tragedy played out.

Those deaths, and their roots in blatant disregard for government regulation in the belief that it harms business, are sadly just a small part of the larger picture of how free marketeers have corrupted the public marketplace of ideas to sow widespread death and destruction so that the "job creators" can go about their usual business of pocketing massive profits while refusing to make microscopic investments in small steps that would save many lives.

Remember the other, larger Massachusetts tragedy that killed at least 50 and injured 722 [7]? No? It was discovered last fall that New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts had been flaunting the rules on drug manufacturing and in their haste to reap maximum profits shipped out vials of steroids contaminated with fungus[8]. Thousands of patients around the country were injected with contaminated material and deaths and injuries followed.

You would think that since this tragedy played out last fall, the government would have realized the error of letting companies call themselves compounders when they are in reality manufacturing drugs on a large scale. Drug manufacturers are subject rigid FDA standards while compounders are regulated as if they are simple neighborhood pharmacies where the druggist might mix single vials of drugs into a form a local doctor has requested for individualized treatment of a patient. But no, because of massive lobbying on the part of compounders, who have become a huge presence because of the vast sums of money they can earn by working the margins of regulation, lawmakers pocket the proceeds of the lobbying and proclaim themselves powerless to harm the job creators as they bring these products to market. It should be viewed as no surprise then, that a different compounder, this time in Florida, now is recalling all of its products because it has been found to have been shipping product that was contaminated with bacteria. It is not yet known if any patients have been harmed by products from this compounder, but at least today's article on the recall was able to update the death toll from the Massachusetts compounder to 53[9].

The Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent search for the perpetrators also was touched by John Galt. Technology has existed for nearly 20 years that can make individual production lots of explosives traceable. But when it came time to implement the technology, the NRA and other gun enthusiasts managed to limit the inclusion of taggants to plastic explosives and to specifically exempt black powder [10] (otherwise known as gunpowder) from being required to be traceable. The Boston bombs used black powder. If investigators had been able to know within hours of the blast where and when the black powder was purchased, would they have been able to arrest the bombers sooner and without the subsequent death of one police officer and near death of another? The full shutdown of Boston on Friday would not have happened if the brothers had been arrested Wednesday or Thursday through tracing the black powder they purchased. But no, John Galt said that gunpowder manufacturers shouldn't have to spend the extra pennies to tag production lots and the inclusion of taggants in gunpowder infringes the rights of gun owners in a de facto registration of their ammunition, so society has to suffer the consequences of this freedom.

http://www.alternet....explosion-texas

I find it ironic ... No I find it ignorant. That the article starts of calling it an unregulated fertilizer plant then spends 5 paragraphs talking about all the regulations he did not follow. Typical liberal. Alarmist #######

[decocker 7,198]

I find it ironic ... No I find it ignorant. That the article starts of calling it an unregulated fertilizer plant then spends 5 paragraphs talking about all the regulations he did not follow. Typical liberal. Alarmist #######

i find this ignorant.

personally i hope my family and house isn't demolished because some plant wants to save some money.

Edited April 25, 2013 by val erie

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

i find this ignorant.

personally i hope my family and house isn't demolished because some plant wants to save some money.

There were a lot of laws he did not follow. I assure you he is in big trouble. He will be in Jail a long time. Let's make more laws. that's the answer.

[decocker 7,198]

There were a lot of laws he did not follow. I assure you he is in big trouble. He will be in Jail a long time. Let's make more laws. that's the answer.

gee. thanks for the assurance. is the new republican 'angle' going to be no new laws?

because that will be such fun, now that they want to apply this line of thought outside of the gun control debate..

[Teddy B 17,252]

The first two thirds of the article have some merit. I agree that pure greed played a huge roll in both tragic events but this part is pure poppycock. The exemption of black powder tracing played no roll in the Boston bombing case.

The Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent search for the perpetrators also was touched by John Galt. Technology has existed for nearly 20 years that can make individual production lots of explosives traceable. But when it came time to implement the technology, the NRA and other gun enthusiasts managed to limit the inclusion of taggants to plastic explosives and to specifically exempt black powder [10] (otherwise known as gunpowder) from being required to be traceable. The Boston bombs used black powder. If investigators had been able to know within hours of the blast where and when the black powder was purchased, would they have been able to arrest the bombers sooner and without the subsequent death of one police officer and near death of another? The full shutdown of Boston on Friday would not have happened if the brothers had been arrested Wednesday or Thursday through tracing the black powder they purchased. But no, John Galt said that gunpowder manufacturers shouldn't have to spend the extra pennies to tag production lots and the inclusion of taggants in gunpowder infringes the rights of gun owners in a de facto registration of their ammunition, so society has to suffer the consequences of this freedom.

[Teddy B 17,252]

gee. thanks for the assurance. is the new republican 'angle' going to be no new laws?

because that will be such fun, now that they want to apply this line of thought outside of the gun control debate..

When one person shows no regard for an existing law, then that law will now become null and void because it's not working anyway.

[decocker 7,198]

When one person shows no regard for an existing law, then that law will now become null and void because it's not working anyway.

when did repulicans become so nihilistic and apathetic? someone needs to look into giving these guys a daily dose of geritol and making sure they get enough vitamin d. i'd hate to see them start wearing black trench coats and quoting marylin manson.

Edited April 25, 2013 by val erie

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

An article right out of Mao's playbook.

Well, since you're in favor of greedy #######'s freedom to ignore safety regulations, let's just agree that it would be best if the next greedy ####### fcukup flattens your house and destroys your family.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

There were a lot of laws he did not follow. I assure you he is in big trouble. He will be in Jail a long time. Let's make more laws. that's the answer.

No, you got to shut those greedy bastards that pizz on their neighbors down. You don't have to inspect often (would take a lot of personnell to do that) but when you do and you find egregious violations, you shut the business down, seize the profits to compensate the staff for their lost jobs and lock up the folks responsible. You set a few such examples and regulations will be followed. Simple as that.

[GandD 5,966]

when did repulicans become so nihilistic and apathetic? someone needs to look into giving these guys a daily dose of geritol and making sure they get enough vitamin d. i'd hate to see them start wearing black trench coats and quoting marylin manson.

The right likes to make laws about morals not regulation.

[decocker 7,198]

The right likes to make laws about morals not regulation.

is immigration a moral issue? they have no problem regulating that hot topic to death..