FDIC insulates customers, but it does not at all insulate the banks; if a bank fails, it fails, FDIC or no. So it doesn't at all remove the incentive for banks to avoid failure by not making poor investments in the same way that, say, a bailout might.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing, and the current cap on insured deposits is a nice balance.

Small depositors aren't finance pros, they don't have the training or network to monitor bank management, so we protect them from rogue management.

Large depositors can and should worry about their bank's solvency, so we focus their minds by leaving their deposits uninsured.

Unfortunately, when large depositors catch a whiff of insolvency, they don't help fix the problem, they're first to pull their deposits and leave everyone else to pay the bill.

So we should treat them as we treat creditors in a bankruptcy, and claw back the cash they were able to withdraw in the days leading up to the bank's closure.

And the FAA is a bad idea because it insulates travelers from the need to monitor what their plane is doing?

Maybe? You could replace the FAA with voluntary certification. People could demand the same standards as the FAA enforces.

Let me bite the bullet:

Flying is arguably way too safe. In the sense that flying could compromise a bit on safety, and still be much safer than cars. If that compromise would lead to lower costs and thus prices, perhaps more people would fly and fewer would drive; leading to better safety on average. Despite flying becoming less safe.

Never thought I would hear someone making that argument. You think we should let more people die in plane crashes so that flying is cheaper?

We already know cheap flying with current safety standards is economically viable, with costs approaching the cost of fuel; see low cost airlines like Ryanair. So the most effective way to lower prices is for airlines to downgrade amenities and services onboard.

Let me bite here.

I think flying could be made cheaper and massively more convenient by getting rid of airport security the way it is done right now. Imagine planes being boarded like trains: there might be a security tradeoff but it would be offset by the massive time benefit for everyone involved. I know I would take that risk, I consider my own time to be more worthy than TSA considers it to be

I don't think anyone is arguing about security to board a plane. They're talking about maintenance requirements and safety requires for when a plane is in flight. Things like airplane inspections.

I'm talking about all aspects.

As an example: planes almost never crash. Which is great! So you could drop the requirement to carry life-vests, without compromising safety numbers.

(If you want, you can invest 50% of the cost savings into eg anti-malaria nets, and you'd come out way ahead in terms of lives saved.)

Similarly, airplane seats are massively over-engineered. You could loosen restrictions there, and save weight and thus costs.

I think Japan might already have different domestic regulations there. I remember being on a domestic flight between Kobe and Tokyo, and the seats in economy class used a lot of mesh over aluminium frame or so. They looked a lot lighter (and also more breathable) than your typical airplane seats. See https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZDWQTNMB93mQs5Yz5 for a picture that I took.

I also agree with vlack-vingaard, but they already gave some good examples.

This is true, we could definitely do with less "compulsory participatory theatre" at airports.

That said, the FAA != TSA. We like the FAA. They solve actual problems.

My guess is that you have two states of equilibrium. One is that accidents happen all the time. The other is that accidents are extremely rare. Both states can exist, but the middle ground is rare and impossible to engineer. The error in safety margins of overlapping complex systems is just too great.

That's a very abstract argument, and doesn't take into account any special features of planes.

So I can say: I just want planes to be as safe as, say, trains. (Or whatever other form of transportation is safer than individual cars, but not as over-burdened as planes. Perhaps busses?)

> could replace the FAA with voluntary certification

How does that work when a plane lands on my house?

That one post seems to say, too bad, you die but it's for a good cause because two other people didn't die in a car crash.

Essentially, yes.

It's very similar to why we allow cars to crash so much in the first place. To paraphrase JumpCrisscross:

> How does that work when a [car runs me over]?

Idk I think retail depositors should be comfortable leaving their money anywhere that’s fdic insured and it’s the bank shareholders that should have to monitor what they’re doing.

We want more monitoring in the financial system, not less.

Otherwise you could make the same argument you just made, and expand it to: shareholders should be comfortable, it should be regulators (or someone else) that should be monitoring, etc.

It's a good idea: it does not protect shareholders at all.

We want more people in the financial system to be aware of risks and pro-actively deal with them. That includes depositors.

(And really skittish depositors could switch to banks that only invest their deposits in eg government bonds. Which are probably about as safe as FDIC insurance.)