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Comment by danols | Hacker News Reader

I am not very concerned with this particular problem anymore since it will get a satisfactory solution due to its publicity.

What I am worried about and think should get more focus is other potential issues and corners that has been cut by the Boeing management. I have note read a single thing that Boeing has handled well in this massive disaster. This lack of judgement, short term profit seeking & cover up mentality is what media should spend more time on. It feels to me that they used up a lot of their trust capital to be allowed to perform any type of self-certification

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That is also expected in our Capitalistic system. Greed, profit, and share-holder value is often more important then the end-user.

Boeing is not the only company that subscribes to that religion.

Rushing to execute a contract in order to meet economic goals is unfortunately also a failure of nominally-socialist systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines_Flight_505...

As are arbitrary cost-cutting goals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines_Flight_7#C...

(I only know about these specific disasters due to reading about the Il-62 because it looks cool)

Interesting. I'm certainly biased from my own experiences in the USA.

It turns out that the problem isn't capitalism or communism, it is arseholes, and they are evenly distributed across all economic systems. What we need to develop is some sort of arsehole distraction system to keep them away from anything important or fragile.

I say this often: “it turns out the problem was people the entire time”.

It is very popular to imagine that the negative circumstances we find ourselves in are enforced upon us by some malevolent outside force, such as “politicians” (scare quotes). And while sometimes certain social structures are to blame, more often than not it’s merely the failings of humanity in general that’s to blame. Greed and laziness know no cultural bounds, for example.

More to the point, rushing execution in order to meet economic promises, and arbitrary cost-cutting, are symptoms of large systems. Capitalist, socialist, same diff, when it comes to the behavior of bureaucracies.

I don't even know about that. Isn't rushing execution a defining characteristic of small start up culture?

Which systems would you say is more susceptible to ill intent?

Psychopaths in leadership/management create problems in all economic systems. Don't blame capitalism. Evil people are evil. There are good people at Boeing but psychopaths have a natural ability to gain power in all kinds of social structures.

From my perspective, it seems evil behavior is rewarded and encouraged more often in this system.

I want to blame capitalism, but you are right. Ultimately people are to blame, and no one system can protect or prevent an evil person from doing evil things.

In our current neoliberal system there is no way to hold these people to account and that's by design.

Yes. It is cronyism

More often compared to what? What is your knowledge of history? Go read Solzhenitsyn and learn about the hundreds of millions killed and tortured under Communism.

Well said.

I doubt that in a non-capitalistic system the 737 MAX would not have had similar problems as in no system resources are infinite. Budgets, even in the most socialist country, are limited. The question is just WHO limits the budget: private enterprises (or their shareholders), co-ops or politicians.

Appreciate the feedback!

How is this a resource problem particularly. Airbus a coporation from the land of semi-socialist countries have similiar reaoirce constraints.

I'm not sure about that. There is genuine value created by avoiding the need for a significant fraction of the world's airline pilots to use scarce and expensive simulators all at the same time, and Boeing's claim that they could pull it off would have been just as attractive under socialism. Too many people trusted that claim without verifying it, but wishful thinking is a pretty universal human trait, and I don't think that socialists are immune to it.

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