The institutional structure of incentives is the problem.

From Notre-Dame’s Toxic Fallout by Elian Peltier, James Glanz, Weiyi Cai and Jeremy White.

A continuing systemic question is, Which is better for progress and improvement? A competitive market or government control? Of course the nuanced question would something along the lines of - What is the optimum balance between competitive markets and government control to ensure maximum transparency?

That is the better question but in systems which are unconstrained, you always tend towards one extreme or the other.

So if there is a fire where lead is vaporized, as a nearby resident, are you more likely to learn of your degree of exposure from the constantly finagling free-market or from Leviathan?

Theory says the competitive free market where competition gives at least someone the incentive to spill the beans. Leviathan owe nothing to the citizens and will pursue its own interests with the power of legal coercion thrown in as an extra benefit. No wonder utopians always choose totalitarianism.

From the above article:

The April fire that engulfed Notre-Dame contaminated the cathedral site with clouds of toxic dust and exposed nearby schools, day care centers, public parks and other parts of Paris to alarming levels of lead.

The lead came from the cathedral’s incinerated roof and spire, and it created a public health threat that stirred increasing anxiety in Paris throughout the summer.

Five months after the fire, the French authorities have refused to fully disclose the results of their testing for lead contamination, sowing public confusion, while issuing reassuring statements intended to play down the risks.

Their delays and denials have opened the authorities to accusations that they put reconstruction of the cathedral — which President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to complete in five years — ahead of the health of thousands of people.

[snip]

Millions around the world watched in horror as the cathedral’s roof and spire succumbed to the flames that night and collapsed. But the billowing smoke carried its own hidden danger: massive quantities of lead, according to test results in confidential reports and others released by the government.

The Times’s investigation drew on confidential documents, including warnings by labor inspectors, a police report and previously undisclosed lead measurements by the Culture Ministry. Two French news organizations, Mediapart and Le Canard Enchaîné, have also investigated the lead concerns.

The documents, as well as scores of interviews, make clear that the French authorities had indications that lead exposure could be a grave problem within 48 hours of the fire.

But it took a month before city officials conducted the first lead tests at a school close to Notre-Dame. Even today, city and regional health officials have not tested every school in the proximity of the cathedral.

The tests showed levels of lead dust above the French regulatory standard for buildings hosting children in at least 18 day care centers, preschools and primary schools.

In dozens of other public spaces, like plazas and streets, authorities found lead levels up to 60 times over the safety standard. Soil contamination in public parks may be among the biggest concerns.

The highest contamination levels, revealed in the confidential Culture Ministry documents obtained by The Times, were at different spots in, or near, the cathedral site. The authorities failed to clean the entire area in the immediate aftermath of the fire and waited four months to finish a full decontamination of the neighborhood.

The Culture Ministry, which is responsible for cleaning the site and rebuilding Notre-Dame, also failed or refused to enforce safety procedures for workers, leaving them exposed to lead levels more than a thousand times the accepted standard.

“These are astronomical levels, and the attitude of health authorities is inexplicable,” said Annie Thébaud-Mony, a prominent public health expert in France, who has been leading public calls for more transparency in the aftermath of the fire.

It is not an isolated example. Think of Flint Michigan water as well Newark. Think of the current troubles for the FBI. Think of The Gold King Mine.

The problem is not necessarily with government per se or with bad people in government (usually). The problem is the absence of accountability and transparency which, between them, ensure that nothing gets revealed. The institutional structure of incentives is the problem.