Would be able to agree that this is too small for Congress, and rather should be under the aegis of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the judiciary, except for one thing:

While the Bush/Cheney administration was busy drowning government in the bathtub, they eviscerated the CPSC and the higher levels of the judiciary as well. So there is no one left to adjudicate but the “free market.” And us.

Do we have clean air, uncontaminated food, paved streets, and collective protection by police, fire departments, and the military?

Saves a few more than 32 lives.

(3) take action to save lives.

32 at a time, thru legislation?! You must be nuts.

On this subject you folks just don’t get how ridiculous you look to the rest of the world. Pick Pick Pick. This kind of stuff is much worse than Rs trying to pass legislation that save millions of embryos that they think are human. At least they’re working in the millions, while you are working in the tens.

20 years of children’s deaths to make this happen and they are not there yet.

At 1-1/2 per year. Yeah, that’s really high priority.

Um, but aren’t we talking about a raised drain cover? Like, $2 of metal to keep a kid from becoming entrapped or disemboweled? That’s over-regulation? Sorry pal, you haven’t sold me yet.

You really think the federal govt ought to be spending scarce time on a problem that causes 1-1/2 death/year? I just can’t fathom how you think that’s appropriate.

This problem is taylor made for the tort system, and for working with trade associations to get them to purvey the information on the Best Practices section of their website and to cover it in their Best Practices seminar at their annual conventions.

I will NOT be a part of any movement that even hints of doing this. Get your priorities straight and stop making fools of yourselves.

As a Harvard MBA I’m all over the Best Practices thingie but they have had 20 years of children’s deaths to make this happen and they are not there yet.

And as for priorities, (1) restore constitutional government (2) stop killing people in other countries (3) take action to save lives. I think pool regulations fall under #3. ymmv

Truth in advertising, I am one of those public health professionals who insists on looking at the larger picture to explore how we can reduce the number of unnecessary deaths and injuries to children. Probably I am one of those people who would write the regulations that so vex your brother [and I am very sorry you have just lost him..].

Unlike the Republicans, Democrats do think there is a role for government to take the overall view of what is good for society, not simply what is expedient for individual businessmen. You can tell my view was very popular at business school.

Do we have clean air, uncontaminated food, paved streets, and collective protection by police, fire departments, and the military? That is called government. It requires that each of us yield a small amount of control for the greater good.

Just as I was “submitting” my self-defense, my cable went down. No really, it did, I swear it did.

So here’s the issue. This swimming pool problem has no bearing on my family’s business one way or the other. My brother, who just died, started in the business in the early 1950s, and his children still run it. To my knowledge no one has ever been serioursly injured, let alone died, relating to defects in any of the pools they have built. They’re mainly commercial, so presumably they’ve had many more swimmers than you would in a home pool. Presumably they use appropriate drains.

No, my problem with this comment is two-fold. The first relates to regulation. When I discussed it in the abstract, I was careful to describe the desideratum as the most economically efficient regulation possible, given the market imperfection, and also mentioned that there are many problems with regulation. One of those problems is overregulation, which is exactly what happens in the swimming pool business. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve listened to about regulations & how difficult it is to figure out what they are & comply with them. I don’t have the patience for more of same.

The second problem I have with this post is that it paints lefties as the characture that the right accuses us of, micromanaging every tee-einsy little problem in the world with federal legislation. Geez. Grow up. This problem is taylor made for the tort system, and for working with trade associations to get them to purvey the information on the Best Practices section of their website and to cover it in their Best Practices seminar at their annual conventions.

I will NOT be a part of any movement that even hints of doing this. Get your priorities straight and stop making fools of yourselves.

My brother’s family builds swimming pools and so I must absent myself from this discussion before I get hot under the collar. Now I wouldn’t denigrate the lives of 132 people in about 20 years, but don’t we have more important topics here at FDL?

Um, no. We don’t. Maybe some things are more pressing, but an easy, cheap fix that can prevent even one drowning is not less important that anything we discuss here. Period.