Incompetence, Greed, Neglect, Dishonesty: The Association Game

 

 

Decades of incompetence, neglect, greed and dishonesty by a succession of owners, engineers and municipal officials led to the deadly cave-in of a northern Ontario mall two years ago, a judicial inquiry reported Wednesday.

 

Somehow, this story sounds familiar.  What does it remind me of?

 

Oh yeah, this:

 

"It's important to bear in mind that the mess in Bangladesh was created over a period of 20 years by brands and retailers and their local factory partners and the Bangladesh government," says Nova.  "It's going to take substantial time to clean it up."

 

What went wrong in Bangladesh?  Incompetence, greed, neglect, dishonesty.

 

But at the time, it wasn't framed that way.  Instead, bold, profit-minded entrepreneurs were focusing on the production and delivery of low-cost goods demanded by the market.

 

Greed is good, remember?  We are supposed to applaud business-minded individuals who add value to the economy and not ask so many questions about the back-end.  Regulations are deterrents to entrepreneurialism, not essential frameworks for the safety of individuals.

 

I mean, this is the real world, right?  People have to learn to fight for what they want.  All the workers in that factory (or in the mall) should have proactively known there was a problem and withheld their labour/dollars until such time as the space was corrected.

 

Clearly, none of this is the fault of the businesses involved.  Policy makers can only deliver what the people want, right?  It's the way the economy works; governments can support whatever adds value to the economy in good conscience.

 

It's worth adding that there are a lot of non-City apartment complexes in Neighbourhood Improvement Areas that are falling apart; owners get around having to do repairs by switching ownership before the city-mandated repair dates post-ownership come up.  This way, they get profit without having to worry about stuff like safety or responsibility.

Then, there are all these new condos being built for demand, not durability.

 

Except this is a problem Council knows exists.

 

When you know a problem exists, have clear examples of what happens when the problem isn't addressed and the responsibility to do something about it - but don't - that's not incompetence or neglect, its criminal.