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sillysaurusx 9 hours ago

The vast majority of violations that lead to loss of life result in charges that are dropped or acquitted. In the US it’s very, very hard to get anyone in jail for gross negligence in construction projects. Look up Plainly Difficult on YouTube, pick one of his hundreds of videos about negligent construction, and there is roughly 99% probability that all the charges were dropped, especially if it was in the US. (It seems to be a bit easier to get people in jail overseas.)

I don’t know why this is, only that it is. And it’s unclear how to change it. You could lobby for new laws, but those tend to be lobbied by the very companies that would stand to lose from those new laws.

alksdjf89243 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Laws don't protect the people, they protect wealth. It's easier to create wealth if you sacrifice life and limb. Look up how many people were buried inside the Hoover Dam -- alive.

The delusion of recompense for damages incurred is a placation of known risk. By that, I mean, if you think you can sue your employer for doing you dirty, then you feel safe to work there.

But it almost never works in the favor of the harmed unless it's a violation of a protected class and that's not really harmful.

What's harmful is dying or losing limbs or the ability to work and employers don't pay much for cases like that.

Get groped by your boss and you'll get millions tho.

themafia 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The delusion of recompense for damages incurred is a placation of known risk.

Negligence is separate from known and unavoidable risk.

> By that, I mean, if you think you can sue your employer for doing you dirty, then you feel safe to work there.

Maybe I just assume they're following relevant safety laws?

> But it almost never works in the favor of the harmed unless it's a violation of a protected class and that's not really harmful.

A settlement is separate from criminal charges. Settlements happen all the time. The state even provides it's own injury compensation plan.

> Get groped by your boss and you'll get millions tho.

The point of that is to prevent the company from blithely creating more victims in the same way it did the first. That's what _true_ wealth actually is.

YZF 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"No people were intentionally buried inside the Hoover Dam's concrete. While 96 deaths were officially recorded during construction, the belief that bodies were entombed is a myth. The dam was built in interlocking blocks, and workers who died were recovered or accounted for"

Supermancho 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I believe that is incorrect. My grand-uncle worked on the Hoover Dam. The safety precautions were limited, to be charitable. Suspending manned Bobcat (equivalent) excavators from ropes, lowered down to the sides of the dam was witnessed. The reason the 96 names are not on the memorial plaque, is because they literally couldn't keep track and aren't exactly sure. IDs and IDing not required at that time. Conveniently, everyone who worked on the Hoover Dam project is now dead.

There were thousands of workers, tens swapped out daily (which is why there are fewer deaths than you would expect). If you weren't a top performer because you were the lowest on the near-manual boring machine with mud/water and stone dumping on you from above, you were replaced. This was built during the Great Depression where there were crowds appearing at the gates everyday looking for the opportunity to work. My great-grandfather, grandfather and granduncle all worked it as Foreman, Carpenter, and Shift Supervisor, respectively. These were at different times in the project.

My extended family all know a different version where there certainly are bodies. I think they are more credible dead, than the official numbers for a highly controversial project back then. Peck wasn't an outlier, but it had the problem of accounting for the people lost. The Hoover project did not.