Federal Trade Commission Is Fine with 50,000 Injuries a Year

What if there were a U.S.-based company called SawStop that patented an invention that could stop a table saw before it inflicted harm to a finger? What if the Consumer Product Safety Commission determined that this new detection device would prevent 50,000 injuries a year? Wouldn’t you think this an idea that we could all applaud? Wouldn’t you think the America First administration would like the idea of a U.S. company getting support from federal regulation that keeps American fingers in place?

As Tekendra Parmar rerpots on MSN.com here, not so much. Saw manufacturers cried foul, claiming that they will have to double the price of their saws because of what they will have to pay for a license to add SawStop’s device to their products. SawStop has offered to make its technology patent available for free, but the industry claims that SawStop owns a web of patents, and unless they are all free, the manufacturers cannot afford to comply with new product safety rules.

In a sane world, the findings of the Consumer Product Safety Commission ought to be enough to motivate the manufacturers to come up with their own alternatives to SawStop’s product. But in this world, where industry can convince the Federal Trade Commission to roll back regulation, the manufacturers have not even claimed that they have the concepts of a planned alternative to SawStops product.

This is the anti-regulation mentality in a nutshell. Let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If there is a regulation out there that you don’t like or a government program that you don’t like, hammer away at its weaknesses while devoting zero resources to offering a reasonable alternative.

Well, since the time of Old Hoss Radbourn, we Americans have valued our fingers, and we know how to use them. So, I’ll leave you with this image directed at the table saw manufacturing community.