[gerdesj]

"Oh, and also put led in gasoline."

Freon and lead were engineering decisions. Both had properties that fixed a burning issue at the time. Unfortunately they also had ... side effects that became apparent later. Neither involved "a guy", they involved entire countries, blocs and multi national enterprises.

[ZeroGravitas]

Leaded gasoline was partly a business decision too.

One of the alternatives, which we use today is to add ethanol.

Ethanol had the business problem of being an alternative fuel in its own right, which competes with gasoline.

[LasEspuelas]

A history of led in gasoline: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/secret-history-lea...

[c54]

The guy in question knew very well about the negative effects of lead[0]. The way in which you're right is that under capitalism, the profit motive distorts and chews up any moral precepts of any individual. The machine demands efficiency no matter how many lives it consumes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

[nearbuy]

The article says it was widely known that large doses of lead are toxic but says they found that 0.08% lead in gasoline was safe.

Today it's widely known that large doses of solanine (a compound in potatoes and tomatoes) are toxic, but the amount commonly in food is thought to be safe. So we haven't banned potatoes.

But even if some insane or evil scientist invents a harmful compound that becomes widely used, I'd be mainly angry at the US Public Health Services, or the equivalent public health agency in other countries. It's their responsibility to only allow safe products. They conducted a study on leaded gasoline and decided not to ban it. And every other country allowed it as well.

So we have to conclude every country's public health agency was either corrupt or incompetent, or that the harm from leaded gasoline at the dosage used wasn't obvious at the time. (Or both.)

[gls2ro]

One is not like the other.

Humans have eat potatoes for about 8000 years. So that seems to be a pretty large scale experiment.

While deciding to put a safe amount of a dangerous material on a product used in large scale is not a good decision.

Not sure how to explain (as I have little time now) but here is a simple way: - both potatoes and led have safe and dangerous levels - one - potato - was used since at least 8000 years ago - the other was not used on such large scale

It seems to me that we need to define safe levels in other way:

- safe levels on small scale and uses rarely

- safe levels on large scale or used constantly

[nearbuy]

Unfortunately it's an 8000 year experiment with no control group that can only detect large or acute effects. We don't know if regular exposure to potatoes slightly decreases IQ or increases risk of cancer or any other effects. (And, in fact, potatoes grilled over a fire are suspected to be carcinogenic.)

With leaded gas, the problem was also these small, long term effects that had never been established despite lead being used for thousands of years.

[klipt]

The Romans were using lead thousands of years ago too.

Small amounts of lead don't kill you immediately, they just make you a little dumber, a little more aggressive...

[throwaway2037]

This one:

    the harm from leaded gasoline at the dosage used wasn't obvious at the time

I think the same is true of lead in (house) paint.

[kelseyfrog]

Reading a Thomas Midgley Jr. biography might change your mind.

He was famously warned of leaded gasoline's dangers, had to take a vacation to Miami to recover from lead poisoning. And also was famously a co-inventor of CFCs.

His only saving grace is that his name is also on the list of "inventors killed by their own inventions."

[nearbuy]

I interpreted the same fact the opposite way. Midgley was okay with exposing himself to lead and thought taking a vacation to get "a large supply of fresh air" would fix his lead exposure. This sounds like someone who didn't believe there were long term effects from chronic exposure to even very small doses of lead.

[latency-guy2]

> The machine demands efficiency no matter how many lives it consumes.

Aside from typical drivel, what evidence do you have of lowered quality of life compared to other modes of economic structure? Of all the economic systems in the world, capitalist societies have had life expectancy (from birth, age 10, age 20, etc.) trend upwards. Famously, the Soviet Union dropped life expectancy in a time of peace, as did East Germany.

The US of A is known for its individualism in stark contrast to many other societies, so you're going to have to prove a lot with this statement:

> the profit motive distorts and chews up any moral precepts of any individual

[6510]

There are countless ways to use the machine.

If citizens have little or no influence on their government it might be better not to horrify them with... shall we say... reality(?) If all we have is poisonous water for you then you can just drink it without knowing what is in it.

If we are going to do some kind of democracy we need you to have access and/or exposure to the full horror of the situation.

The market machinery needs a good definition of profit. If it must all be measured in one unit we can do that, money, gold, sea shells or quality of life, it doesn't really matter to the game.

We ironically build the proverbial hospital then go look for ways to profit from it. It follows that treatment must be as expensive as possible in order to maximize profit. You could consider the hospital the profit.

If we are going to modify your reality for you then your opinion is anything money can buy and we wont have the advantages of totalitarianism either.

There would be no difference between building or bombing hospitals. It would just be a matter of which is more profitable.

Other models of economic structure is a fun topic but we are not in a position to do it. We might want to rewrite it in Rust but the best we can hope for is some small modifications, close some of the worse bugs. It is hard to let the imagination run wild if it's not going to happen.

[3seashells]

What evidence do you have that the sensor(human experience) is adequate to detect incremental or longterm change?

We could literally nuke the entire planet and 30 years later have a generation for which cancer, long winters and ruined before time cities are normal. The species sucks at perceiving reality

[latency-guy2]

What?

[lithos]

Lead was chosen over ethanol as it could be patented and licensed out.