Latest news with #Freefall
Mint
01-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Kaushik Basu: Redefine prosperity; GDP tunnel-vision could prove costly
In mainstream economics, description is routinely treated as secondary to analysis. Labelling a work as 'purely descriptive' conveys dismissiveness. Yet, as Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen observed in a seminal 1980 paper, every act of description involves choices. Whether we are describing a historical event, an individual or a country, what we choose to include and what we leave out can be critical. Description shapes perception. And perception, in turn, can profoundly influence behaviour. Describing the state of a country's economy is a complicated task. In the past, scholars wrote lengthy volumes debating whether one country was doing better than another. But over time, globally, a single measure has come to dominate the conversation: gross domestic product, or GDP for short, which represents the value of all goods and services produced within a country in a given year. With some adjustments, it also approximates the population's total income. It is an astonishingly concise metric, often used as shorthand for economic well-being. Also Read: It's time to lay the great Indian GDP controversy to rest As Diane Coyle noted in her 2014 book on the history of GDP, its emergence marked a watershed moment in economic policymaking. Developed by Simon Kuznets in the early 1930s, GDP has brought much-needed rigour to policy debates. Politicians could no longer simply point to tall buildings as evidence of progress (though many still do). Today, assessing a country's economic performance over time means tracking the growth of its GDP. To be sure, there are other ways to assess national well-being, such as the United Nations Human Development Index and the World Bank's shared prosperity indicator. But when it comes to determining whether one economy is outperforming another, GDP (or GDP per capita) remains the default benchmark. While GDP has undoubtedly played a valuable role in modern economics, its limitations are increasingly difficult to ignore. Over time, it has become an end in itself, enabling politicians to use growth figures as a convenient distraction from persistent social and economic fractures. Growing unease with GDP-centric policy thinking was powerfully articulated in UN Secretary-General António Guterres's 2021 report Our Common Agenda, which urged global policymakers to embrace a broader set of progress indicators. Also Read: Statistical dust-up: The great Indian GDP controversy needn't have arisen As an economic indicator, GDP has three key weaknesses. First, by focusing solely on a country's total income, it can create the illusion of widespread prosperity, even when inequality is rising. GDP per capita can rise even as a majority becomes worse off. As Joseph E. Stiglitz put it in his 2010 book Freefall, 'A larger pie does not mean everyone–or even most people–gets a larger slice." But most people may celebrate GDP growth nonetheless—much like they cheer their country's Olympic medal count—without questioning who actually benefits. This concern was highlighted by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, which was established in 2008 by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy and included Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and other prominent economists. Its final report called for incorporating measures like income distribution and inequality into GDP. The second weakness of GDP is that its maximization often rewards activities that undermine democratic governance. Being super-rich, after all, involves more than just owning more cars, mansions, planes and yachts. Extreme wealth, especially in the age of social media and AI, also means having a louder voice and disproportionate influence over how people think. In traditional societies, when a feudal lord entered a village council meeting, ordinary people who may have been arguing and pleading for change just moments earlier would fall silent. That same dynamic is now playing out on a global scale. Also Read: The state of India's economy is not as bright as GDP data may suggest As wealth becomes concentrated in fewer hands, and as a handful of online platforms shape what billions of internet users see and hear, many are discovering that they are losing their voice—the most essential instrument of democracy. Clearly, the time has come to develop new measures of national progress that do not strengthen the forces threatening democracy. As US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously warned, 'We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." Lastly, GDP can be inflated at the expense of future generations. We can and do boost GDP growth by engaging in activities that damage the environment and accelerate climate change, leaving our descendants with a scorched earth. Given this, merely acknowledging the urgency of climate action is no longer enough. To ensure a sustainable future, we must reform our most prominent measure of economic welfare so that sustainability is central to how we define prosperity. ©2025/Project Syndicate The author is a professor of economics at Cornell University and a former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wild Mountain's waterpark, slides open for the season this week
Wild Mountain is ready for the summer season. The Taylors Falls park along the Wisconsin border has been open on select days this month, but the waterpark and all other Wild Mountain attractions will be open daily beginning on May 31. Just one piece of Wild Mountain, Wild Adventure Island features water attractions like a lazy river, a water structure with slides and a 350-gallon dump bucket, and a kiddie pool play area for younger children. Its Avalanche Alley has four large "alpine" water slides. There are also a pair of 1,700-foot alpine slides called Arctic Rush, which are not water features. The park also features Freefall, where visitors can leap onto massive airbags from a set of decks, as well as the Tall Timber go-kart track. Wild Mountain, which touts being a certified carbon-neutral company, will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily beginning on May 31. Season passes are available through June 30.
USA Today
20-03-2025
- USA Today
Ex-technician says ride operator ignored safety issues before teen's deadly fall
Ex-technician says ride operator ignored safety issues before teen's deadly fall Show Caption Hide Caption Trial begins in lawsuit over Tyre Sampson death Jury selection was set to begin in a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the FreeFall ride at ICON Park, where a 14-year-old fell to his death in 2022. Fox - 35 Orlando A former maintenance technician who worked on an Orlando amusement park ride before 14-year-old Tyre Sampson died in a shocking fall from it in 2022 claims he alerted supervisors of safety issues that were ignored before the incident. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday seeking over $50,000, Austin Campbell-Alexander said he alerted his supervisor that a ride operator was using replacement sensors on some of the Free Fall ride's seats to allow larger passengers to ride than the seats were designed to accommodate, overriding the ride's safety equipment. "Such an override was knowingly dangerous to the public as the Freefall ride's manufacturer set weight and height limits for riders," the lawsuit, which was viewed by USA TODAY asserted. This was the safety issue that investigators later determined led to Sampson's death at Orlando's ICON Park on March 24, 2022. Sampson's family was awarded $310 million last year in a suit against the ride's manufacturer, Funtime-Handels. "We will work to hold Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot accountable and send a message to all ride owners and operators that you cannot sweep safety concerns under the rug or punish workers who bring them to light," Campbell-Alexander's attorneys John Morgan and Greg Schmitz of the Morgan & Morgan Law Firm said in a statement. The lawyers representing the ride's operators, Eagle Drop Slingshot and other companies, said Campbell-Alexander's claims "are in direct conflict with statements he provided following the accident, which will no doubt be demonstrated in Court." "Upon discovering that Mr. Campbell-Alexander adjusted the sensors that resulted in the accident, he was suspended and relieved of any further involvement or access to any rides. Upon learning of Mr. Campbell-Alexander's and other employees' conduct, we proactively notified investigating authorities," Trevor Arnold and Brian Bieber of the Pennsylvania-based GrayRobinson firm said in a statement to USA TODAY. Campbell-Alexander's attorneys denied that he adjusted the sensors on his own and said he didn't have the authority or the training to do so. The decisions about the sensors and operation of the ride were solely with the defendants, they said. What happened to Tyre Sampson The Free Fall ride was designed to carry 30 riders at a time and rise to the top, tilt forward and then free fall nearly 400 feet at speeds reaching over 75 mph. Sampson slipped out the bottom of the seat on the descent while the ride braked, witnesses said at the time. Video of the incident suggested he was propelled from his seat at high speeds. Attorneys for his family said there was no secondary seatbelt other than the over-the-shoulder harness. The ride was supposed to hold passengers up to 287 pounds, according to its manual. Sampson was about 6-foot-2 and about 380 pounds, a lawsuit filed by his family said. "The cause of the subject accident was that Tyre Sampson was not properly secured in the seat primarily due to mis-adjustment of the harness proximity sensor," said a 2022 report from the forensic engineering firm hired by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to investigate the cause of the accident. "The mis-adjustment of the sensor allowed both safety lights to illuminate, improperly satisfying the ride's electronic safety mechanisms allowing the ride to commence even though the ride was unsafe." Ex-employee claims safety issues were reported In Campbell-Alexander's suit, the former technician claimed an operations manager manually bypassed the normal safety features of some of the rides' seats. The lawsuit said he reported this issue to his supervisor. Campbell-Alexander said he learned of the issues around mid-January, but the lawsuit doesn't say when he reported them. He also raised concerns about a lack of training given to technicians, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit also claims that about two weeks before Sampson's death, Campbell-Alexander and another employee discovered a cylinder that locks and holds riders into their seats was overheating when the ride was operating. The lawsuit says employees tried to fix the ride, but realized a technician would need to come reprogram the ride from Austria, where the manufacturer is based. "Nonetheless, despite knowing a 're-program' was necessary, Defendants went ahead and continued operating the FreeFall ride, bypassed the safety issue, and disregarded the safety risks this would pose to patrons," the lawsuit said. Other safety issues discovered also went unaddressed and the ride continued to operate, the lawsuit claimed. Campbell-Alexander said after Sampson's death, he was asked by his supervisors to "backfill blank maintenance logs and sign off on certain maintenance tasks as having been performed by him and one of Plaintiff's co-workers." He refused, and was later placed on paid leave for nearly a year before he was fired, the lawsuit said. Campbell-Alexander alleges in the lawsuit that his firing was retaliatory. The Free Fall ride has since been taken down. Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Yahoo
Former technician files lawsuit alleging safety violations linked to ride death at ICON Park
A former technician alleges he reported safety issues with the Freefall ride before a fatal incident, faced retaliation, and was later terminated. The lawsuit, submitted by an Orlando-based law firm, claims that the former maintenance technician reported safety issues with the Freefall ride, that resulted in Tyre Sampson's death in 2022. Austin Alexander worked as a maintenance technician for Orlando Eagle Drop Slingshot from April 2021 to March 2023. According to the lawsuit, Alexander discovered several safety concerns with the FreeFall ride, which was located at ICON Park, starting in mid-January 2022. Safety issues include overridden sensors to accommodate large patrons over certain height and weight limits, overheated cylinders that prevented seats from securing properly, and cracks in the joints of the ride's metal structure. According to the lawsuit, every time Alexander noticed a safety concern, he would report it back to his supervisor, but the company continued to operate the ride without addressing the safety concerns. The lawsuit states that during the investigation into the minor's death, the lawsuit claims that Alexander was asked to falsify maintenance logs to make it appear as though certain tasks had been completed prior to the incident. After refusing to comply, Alexander stated he was placed on paid administrative leave for a year while the investigation was ongoing. The lawsuit states that Alecander's employment was terminated after the civil lawsuit was settled with the family of the minor. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
