@blatham,
Of course, it can, as it always has.
Your prescription for avoiding this?
The notion that government controls will eliminate all tragedies is absurd. I'm not familiar with the facts of the Grendell Tower fire but I seriously doubt that the government of London and the UK have no controls in place that they believe will prevent such tragedies. What went wrong? Someone on the control side, I imagine, was either not doing their job or was paid to look the other way.
Government controls for public safety are a good thing, but it's interesting that the recourse that a hard-core free marketer would argue is all that is necessary - civil actions in courts, remains in place despite government controls. One might think that in exchange for costly regulations and controls, business would be offered at least liability limits if not immunity, but no. Companies and professionals assume the cost and remain 100% exposed when the regulations fail. In most cases, it is the government that imposes ineffective regulations or fails to properly enforce them that has immunity.
This would be all well and good if corporations were all unbridled predators willing to sacrifice lives for a dime of profit, but that's clearly not the case. However, it seems that way to leftists who have zero ability to see any good in private business beyond the Basket Maker at the local flea market or the Head Shop on Main Street.
How much better it would be if the government controlled the means of production?
Chernobyl.
