Why We Can't Have Nice Things (Page 5)

Security Theater

One Man Failed to Light His Shoe on Fire in 2001. Americans Removed Their Shoes at Airport Security for the Next Nineteen Years, While Undercover Investigators Carried Weapons Past Screeners in 67 of 70 Attempts.

On 22 December 2001, Richard Reid boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami with explosives built into his shoes. He then failed to detonate them. He could not get the fuse to light, passengers and crew noticed a man attempting to set fire to his own footwear, and

Banned For Everyone

Congress Moved Cold Medicine Behind the Pharmacy Counter in 2005 to Shut Down Meth Labs. It Worked, and Four Years Later Meth Was the Cheapest and Purest It Had Been Since the Law Passed.

The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act became law in 2005. It addressed a real and specific problem: methamphetamine was being manufactured in domestic kitchens, garages, and motel rooms, in quantities that made small-scale production a genuine public safety issue, out of pseudoephedrine bought from the cold and flu aisle. The

Recalled

The Safety Commission Told Parents to Stop Using the Peloton Tread+ After a Child Died. Peloton Called the Warning Inaccurate and Misleading, Then Recalled 125,000 Machines Eighteen Days Later.

On 17 April 2021, the Consumer Product Safety Commission told the public to stop using the Peloton Tread+ if there were children or pets in the house. The commission does not usually do this. It has the authority to issue a unilateral warning without a company's agreement, and

Recalled

Fisher-Price Consulted One Doctor, Who Was Not a Pediatrician, Before Selling the Rock 'n Play Sleeper. It Made at Least $200 Million and Was Linked to Roughly 100 Infant Deaths.

The Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper went on sale in 2009. It was an inclined seat that held an infant at roughly thirty degrees, marketed for overnight sleep, and it sold on the strength of a simple observation: babies placed in it stopped crying and stayed asleep. Parents

Policy Updates

The FTC Fined Vizio $2.2 Million in 2017 for Tracking 11 Million Smart TVs Without Consent. The Remedy Was a Consent Screen, and a Peer-Reviewed Study Later Found LG Sets Fingerprinting Whatever Is on Screen Every Fifteen Seconds.

In February 2017, Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General to settle charges that it had collected viewing data from roughly 11 million televisions without telling anyone. The software had been running since February 2014. It recorded what was

Investigations

Two Separate Federal Courts Ruled Google an Illegal Monopolist Within Eight Months of Each Other. Google's Punishment So Far Is a Scheduling Requirement, and Its Profit That Year Was $132 Billion.

On August 5, 2024, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in general search and general search text advertising. Eight months later, on April 17, 2025, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court

Investigations

A U.S. Judge Let a Private Law Firm Prosecute the Lawyer Who Won a $9.5 Billion Pollution Verdict Against Chevron. That Firm Had Represented Chevron as a Client Three Years Earlier.

From 1964 to 1992, Texaco was the sole operator of oil concessions covering roughly 1,500 square miles of Ecuador's Lago Agrio region, in the heart of the Amazon. Plaintiffs' attorneys say the company discharged an estimated 16 to 18.5 billion gallons of "produced water&

Investigations

Shell Paid a Nigerian Military Commander $1,364 Days After His Men Fired on Protesters Outside Its Offices in 1994. Ken Saro-Wiwa and Eight Others He Helped Convict Were Hanged, Then Pardoned Thirty Years Later to Restart Oil Production.

On March 3, 1994, Shell Petroleum Development Company paid Major Paul Okuntimo and 25 of his men a 30,000 Naira "honorarium" — about $1,364. Okuntimo commanded Rivers State's Internal Security Task Force, the unit formed weeks earlier specifically to handle unrest in Ogoniland. An internal

Investigations

Marriott Acquired Starwood's Reservation System in 2016 Without Noticing Chinese State-Linked Hackers Had Already Been Inside It for Two Years. Its 2024 Settlement Requires Learning the Due Diligence That Was Supposed to Catch That the First Time.

In July 2014, attackers later assessed by U.S. investigators as linked to China's Ministry of State Security got into Starwood Hotels & Resorts' guest reservation database. They stayed. In September 2016, Marriott completed its acquisition of Starwood for roughly $13 billion, absorbing the reservation system, the

Investigations

West Fertilizer Company Told the EPA Its Worst-Case Scenario Was a Small Ammonia Leak, No Fire or Explosion. Fifteen People, Mostly Volunteer Firefighters, Died Proving It Wrong Twenty Minutes Later.

West Fertilizer Company had been mixing and storing agricultural chemicals in the small Texas town of West, population roughly 2,800, since 1962. On the evening of April 17, 2013, a fire broke out inside the wood-frame facility. Firefighters, most of them volunteers, arrived to fight what looked like

Investigations

3M Invented the Chemical Behind Scotchgard, Sold It to DuPont as a Raw Material for Fifty Years, and Found It in Its Own Workers' Blood by 1976. It Kept Selling It Anyway, Until Its Own Liability Made It Stop in 2000.

In 1953, a 3M lab assistant named Patsy Sherman spilled a fluorochemical compound on a tennis shoe and couldn't get it off. The stain resisted everything, and 3M turned the accident into Scotchgard. It was a good story, and 3M told it often. What 3M told far less

Investigations

Boeing's Quality Manager Spent Years Warning That Sub-Standard Parts Were Slipping Onto 787s Unchecked. He Died Alone in a Parking Lot Mid-Deposition Against the Company, and the Case Closed Within Months.

For 32 years, John Barnett worked the assembly lines that built America's commercial airliners, first on the 747, 767, and 777 programs in Everett, Washington, then from 2010 to 2017 as a quality manager at Boeing's 787 Dreamliner plant in North Charleston, South Carolina. In 2017

Latest

One Man Failed to Light His Shoe on Fire in 2001. Americans Removed Their Shoes at Airport Security for the Next Nineteen Years, While Undercover Investigators Carried Weapons Past Screeners in 67 of 70 Attempts.

Congress Moved Cold Medicine Behind the Pharmacy Counter in 2005 to Shut Down Meth Labs. It Worked, and Four Years Later Meth Was the Cheapest and Purest It Had Been Since the Law Passed.

The Safety Commission Told Parents to Stop Using the Peloton Tread+ After a Child Died. Peloton Called the Warning Inaccurate and Misleading, Then Recalled 125,000 Machines Eighteen Days Later.

Fisher-Price Consulted One Doctor, Who Was Not a Pediatrician, Before Selling the Rock 'n Play Sleeper. It Made at Least $200 Million and Was Linked to Roughly 100 Infant Deaths.

The FTC Fined Vizio $2.2 Million in 2017 for Tracking 11 Million Smart TVs Without Consent. The Remedy Was a Consent Screen, and a Peer-Reviewed Study Later Found LG Sets Fingerprinting Whatever Is on Screen Every Fifteen Seconds.

Two Separate Federal Courts Ruled Google an Illegal Monopolist Within Eight Months of Each Other. Google's Punishment So Far Is a Scheduling Requirement, and Its Profit That Year Was $132 Billion.

A U.S. Judge Let a Private Law Firm Prosecute the Lawyer Who Won a $9.5 Billion Pollution Verdict Against Chevron. That Firm Had Represented Chevron as a Client Three Years Earlier.

Shell Paid a Nigerian Military Commander $1,364 Days After His Men Fired on Protesters Outside Its Offices in 1994. Ken Saro-Wiwa and Eight Others He Helped Convict Were Hanged, Then Pardoned Thirty Years Later to Restart Oil Production.

Marriott Acquired Starwood's Reservation System in 2016 Without Noticing Chinese State-Linked Hackers Had Already Been Inside It for Two Years. Its 2024 Settlement Requires Learning the Due Diligence That Was Supposed to Catch That the First Time.

West Fertilizer Company Told the EPA Its Worst-Case Scenario Was a Small Ammonia Leak, No Fire or Explosion. Fifteen People, Mostly Volunteer Firefighters, Died Proving It Wrong Twenty Minutes Later.

3M Invented the Chemical Behind Scotchgard, Sold It to DuPont as a Raw Material for Fifty Years, and Found It in Its Own Workers' Blood by 1976. It Kept Selling It Anyway, Until Its Own Liability Made It Stop in 2000.

Boeing's Quality Manager Spent Years Warning That Sub-Standard Parts Were Slipping Onto 787s Unchecked. He Died Alone in a Parking Lot Mid-Deposition Against the Company, and the Case Closed Within Months.