[lordnacho]

The example you're looking for is insurance, where it's an obvious problem. You can't just open an insurance company, take people's premium payments, and then go broke when there's a claim.

But for other companies, normal limited liability bankruptcy is the default solution. Nobody thought coal companies would be a special risk in the sense of having liabilities way after their income. It's like if you invent an ice cream that turns out to give people cancer in 20 years, there's no recourse beyond what money the company has at that time.

[Nasrudith]

I think it isn't a case of "nobody knew" so much as "everybody was in deep denial". Black lung was long known along with the effects of poor air as not good for your health.

I have noticed a chain of rationalization cropping up a lot with preventable human health crises - often on a generational time scale. The sequence seems to be similiar to an ironic reshuffled subsection of stages of grief.

1. Bargining: "Yeah it is bad but is better than the alternative." (It makes money/keeps us from freezing to death.) 2. Acceptance: "It is a neccessity now." (Most of our industrial and personal exonomy is dependent on it.) 3. Denial: "It can't be harmful!" 4. Anger: "How could we know that it was bad?"

[asdffdsa]

Reminds me of: climate change, American government, inequality & the flaws in capitalist systems, using free internet services (fb, google), sedentary lifestyle and poor (processed food and excessive refined sugar) diet.

[XorNot]

I mean this really happened though: asbestos was exactly this problem.

[lordnacho]

Yeah agreed. Not clear what the solution is though. It's a bit blunt to just not allow limited liability, which is useful for a lot of things. But then what do you do instead?

[madez]

We must internalize the costs.

1) People must be held responsible for their actions no matter if it's in their free time or at work. You do it, you are responsible for it.

2) Those that give unlawful tasks to others as their boss must personally be held responsible no matter whether the task actually got implemented, or not.

3) The investors of avtivities must personally be held responsible for the activities they fund. It's their responsibility to know what they are funding.