Quote Originally Posted by GGT View Post
"Industry standards" mean Regulations, something the EPA does. But if you mean polluting industries self-regulating, with more exacting standards, that idea has been shown to be a pipe dream. BP and Trans Atlantic as latest examples. As I've been reminded here hundreds of times, the purpose of any business/corporation is to make money. Not to have a social conscience or follow ethical community best-practices. In other words, your theoretical libertarian guidelines don't seem to work well when put into practice.
Because prior to the BP oil spill, the oil companies lived in a libertarian wonderland, right? Libertarian guidelines haven't worked because they haven't been tried. If an oil company could be held solely responsible for the damages caused by a faulty oil rig, I believe they would have a great incentive to not cut corners, and make sure that their rigs were held to the highest possible standards. Companies that didn't wouldn't last very long.

But they do. Would be great if the libertarian ideal worked in practice, but it doesn't. That's why it's an Ideal.
Libertarian ideals have not been implemented or practiced.