Cartoon 814: The Details Get You

America as a society is one of, “just do it - we will sort it out later”. We lack the patience or the desire to do a creditable job of assessing risks. This is particularly true if financial profits are involved. We outsource “due diligence” from a regulatory point of view to the businesses and industries we regulate. Examples are everywhere, the railroads, airlines, pharmaceutical companies, and chemical industry. The Regulators supposedly do spot checks. But the spot checks are announced well in advance with a known narrow specific focus. The goal is not to uncover problems that will drive up costs. Congress has granted this cover. When an airline or train crashes, the Regulators ask to see their more encompassing detailed documentation. Even then, the goal is not to expose industry or Regulatory culpability.

Europe recognizes the fallacy of this model. They proposed independent testing of chemicals and not relying on industry provided data a decade ago. Guess which nation vehemently blocked it at every turn? At risk was the billions of dollars of the dominate American chemical industries. The other problem is that “due diligence” might require decades of research to identify the subtle changes that are exacerbated over time.

Sometimes the things we do clearly make absolutely no sense. Underarm deodorant is an example.