re: #241 Dark_Falcon

The Calumet got help from there being more corporate executives in Chicago, truth to tell. The number of business leaders who attacked BP’s plan to dump mercury into Lake Michigan was important in causing the big energy firm to back off before its plan could even be rejected by the federal government.

Turns out executives don’t like piloting their yachts through polluted water and they don’t want to lose staff to water problems, either. So it is at times possible to maintain standards simply by appealing to the interests of some elites to push back against others. This is actually better than just regulation alone because it causes said elites to support and bind themselves to said regulations.

Without regulation that sounds an awful lot like an oligarchy/pseudo-nobility making all the meaningful decisions in their clubs and on the golf course. And I expect their “standards” for the hoi polloi are fairly low, or easily purchased in exchange for a favor or inclusion on a good deal.