The Ehrenberg Company is among the safest companies in the nation in terms of th

Question

The Ehrenberg Company is among the safest companies in the nation in terms of the number of workdays lost due to accidents that take place at it each year. However, the owner of the Ehrenberg Company steadfastly opposes any government law that requires him to structure his production process in a way that reduces the risk of occupational injury or health problems (e.g. a law requiring that his machines not emit noise above a certain level). If it is well-known that high noise levels cause hearing loss in workers, how can the owner be against such a law?

Explanation / Answer

The owner of the firm is a profit maximizer and has already taken appropriate measures which have made his company one of the safest in terms of accidents which take place at work.

Taking steps to ensure that other risk of occupational injury like noise pollution would force him to alter his production process, which would not only be a costly affair, but might also come with other costs like the new process might pose other types of health risk to the workers.

Since noise pollution is something not visible to the eyes (like land or air pollution), he thinks of it as a not-so-important issue and so opposes such a law.

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