A good example of this can be seen in the case of a family whose apartment unit we visited. For two months the family heard a loose pipe banging around in the wall. A plumber was called in to check it out, and he took advantage of his specialization, lied about fixing it, ignored and minimized the family's complaints of still hearing it, and got paid handsomely for doing so and washed his hands of it, leaving the family to suffer through their nights listening to the banging pipe in aggravation.
Now part of the reason that this family was so helpless, was that there was asbestos in the ceiling and walls, and they couldn't touch anything if they wanted to deal with the problem. To make any alteration in the wall a specialized abatement team must come out and professionally deal with the asbestos, at the behest of management.
This particular construction decision has robbed the family of its faculty of self-determination in caring for and maintaining its living environment. Now in fact there are many structural processes that effectively do this as well, but this is a very direct and apparent one.
Granted, the harmful effects of asbestos products were gradually discovered as they were being mass produced. But keeping with the history of the U.S. government, and Western capital in general, these harmful effects were downplayed and lied about, and there was plenty of feet-dragging to actually address the problem and ban the stuff and compensate consumers for the harm done. And of course it continues today.
