Abandoning the Public Interest

http://www.diemer.ca/Docs/Diemer-Abandoningthepublicinterest.htm
Diemer, Ulli

Year Published:  2001   First Published:  2001
Resource Type:  Article/Report/Letter
Cx Number:  CX5282

The neo-liberal drive to cut red tape is costing lives. Exposing the hidden costs of deregulation and privatization.

Abstract:  According to Ulli Diemer, we are witnessing a drastic rolling back of the systems and structures which Western societies developed over the past century or more to safeguard public health and safety. A new generation of politicians and business leaders, permeated with free-market ideology, is jettisoning, with little thought or understanding of the consequences, the apparatus previous generations built, piece by piece, to mitigate the most dangerous aspects of industrial civilization.
What we are losing as a result are not only specific protective and regulatory mechanisms, important as they are, but the understanding of why they exist, why they were created in the first place. The hard-won experiences of the past, the disasters that our ancestors learned from at great cost, are disappearing down the memory hole.

Subject Headings

• Accidents
• Building Standards
• Conflict of Interest
• Corporations/Influence on Government
• E. Coli
• Food Safety
• Government Downsizing
• Health & Safety
• Health & Safety/Policy & Legislation
• Pesticide Safety
• Pesticides
• Privatization
• Public Health
• Public Interest
• Public Safety
• Railway Safety
• Regulatory Affairs
• Regulatory Law
• Transportation Safety
• Water Safety