DISASTERS: EXPLOSIONS : UNITED STATES: STATES: TEXAS : INDUSTRIES: FERTILIZER INDUSTRY : LIBERTARIANISM 'Free Market' Ayn Rand Ideology Was a Root Cause of the Horrific Explosion in Texas

[David P. Dillard]

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DISASTERS: EXPLOSIONS :

UNITED STATES: STATES: TEXAS :

INDUSTRIES: FERTILIZER INDUSTRY :

LIBERTARIANISM:

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

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

April 23, 2013

Jim White

AlterNet

http://www.alternet.org/economy/
ayn-rand-and-horror-texas-fertilizer-facility

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A shorter URL for the above link:

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http://tinyurl.com/ayo5qsh

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The tragedy in Waco is part of a larger story about the deregulation of
business in the name of pocketing massive profits.

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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, Texas that took the lives of fourteen people,
most of whom were volunteer firefighters 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. Of course, the facilitys
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 (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 owners 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.

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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.

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snip

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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.

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snip

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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 (otherwise known as
gunpowder) from being required to be traceable.

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The complete article may be read at the URL above.

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Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jw...@temple.edu
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