[Openmcl-devel] process-run-function and mach ports usage

[Raffael Cavallaro]

On Feb 24, 2011, at 11:54 AM, Ron Garret wrote:

> On Feb 24, 2011, at 8:36 AM, Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> 
>> On 24 Feb 2011, at 14:59, Raffael Cavallaro wrote:
>> 
>>> Hold on, do you mean to say that the wisdom of the market won't make the right decision here without some sort of regulatory intervention?
>> 
>> No.  The market considers it fine for a few people to die.  When lots of people start dying then things will get fixed, because that costs a lot of money.
>> 
>> (This is, partly, a joke).
> 
> Why?  This is exactly as it should be.

Not *exactly*. The reason for regulation is that there will always be market participants who want to cut corners to increase profits. The market will of course "learn" about these participants, but in some markets (like avionics) that "learning" can take the form of hundreds of deaths. We have regulation where the cost of market "learning" is judged too high.

I once heard it argued that there was no need to outlaw slavery in the US - the market would have "learned" that paying wages and/or using automated machinery for slave jobs was more efficient[1]. Of course the cost of that market "lesson" would have been years or decades of continued slavery.


[1] Apparently some Dominicans, to pick one example, still haven't learned this market "lesson" as they continue to enslave haitians as cane cutters, domestic servants, and sex workers.

warmest regards,

Ralph


Raffael Cavallaro
raffaelcavallaro at me.com