News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug. Parent comment

Re:Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug by ArkyBeagle on Wednesday March 09, 2016 @07:47PM (#11256729)
Free markets in no way preclude torts. If your ... snake-oil medicine kills somebody, that's a tort. Taken properly, this means you won't just lose one lawsuit, you'll enjoy the legal equivalent of being bombed back to the stone age.

Free markets only work if there is good and efficient law. Indeed, David Friedman has written extensively on this very subject. His "Machineries of Freedom" is excellent.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug by cbd1984 on Wednesday March 09, 2016 @10:15PM (#11257212)
> Free markets in no way preclude torts.

I just said they allowed torts. I also explained why torts alone are insufficient.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug by ArkyBeagle on Thursday March 10, 2016 @10:25AM (#11259698)
It looks very much ( to me at least ) that tort law keeps us a lot safer than regulation. It's may be impossible to isolate factors to really say - both grew up together.

It may be that both are required. It may also be that regulation or other public safety standards are necessary for the proper operation of tort law.

[ Parent | on HN ]