The problem is that it's the job of the government to ensure that private companies meet their consequences.

So, if you cannot trust government, you cannot trust private companies to not poison you either. I guess it's possible to have governments break down just enough to screw up the local water supply while not quite rolling in the bed with multinational companies yet, but I doubt such an arrangement would be stable for long.

There are free market consequences as well though. People at large very easily get spooked by a brand when numerous alternatives are available.

Of course! The free market consequences of people switching en-masse to another brand owned by the same conglomerate :)

Isn't it what happened after a river contamination/Chemical spill scandal in WV?

The company declared bankruptcy rather than pay the cleanup bills, but the owner and executives just started a new one, hired the same management, and everything is fine (for them), since taxpayers paid for the cleanup?

I think the name of the company was "Freedom Industries", which makes it even more of a typical american "urban legend", but it is actually true.

[edit] just looked it up, its called "Elk river cheminal spill" on wikipedia, and the exec actually used the same address and the same phone number to set up Lexycon LLC, the new company: they know they'll get away, they don't care to hide anymore.

Market consequences for something like drinking water is such a wild concept. Forget lead, imagine how many can get dysentery before the bottled water business stops blaming random local Chinese restaurants the consumer went to the day before.

Sure, the survivors can swap to a new brand. Shame for everyone who died in the cholera outbreak though.

Better hope that new brand isn't just the old one with a new label slapped on.