I commented on Toyota’s troubles a few posts ago. A more fully reasoned commentary on the subject can be found here. (My thanks to Vic)
One paragraph from the post above about the lives we know we will sacrifice for comfort, speed and convenience is worth quoting in full:
And don’t imagine that we do not coldly calculate the price of a human life. In 1974, the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to conserve oil. That also led to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities — approximately 3,000 lives every year. This didn’t stop us, after the oil crisis, from raising the speed limit back to 65 and beyond — knowing that thousands of Americans would die as a result
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