Actully the conditions in China depend on its stage of economic development just as in the US

Reader comment on: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Submitted by Lyle (United States), Mar 28, 2011 16:30

It is interesting if you look at history how much China looks like the US during the 1880-1910 period. It is the super growth boom period, where income goes up, and society has additional surplus. The value of a human life goes up and therefore safety becomes more important as the costs of accidents rise. (This is a view point many would say is horribly unethical but...) It is just like 100 years ago a smoggy city was regarded as a sign of economic progress, we got richer and demanded that the air be cleaner and rivers not catch fire. Today the value of a life in the US runs between 5 and 10 million dollars in terms of costs to reduce deaths. I doubt that the figure in China would even be 500k today. In one sense the huge immigration of the 1900 period resulted in labor being cheap, since you could replace anyone killed cheaply. For a while at least this will still be true in China as there are still more people down on the farm, but signs are that the size of the remaining group is beginning to decline, and folks are demanding more to move.

Note: Comments are moderated by the editor and are subject to editing.

Other reader comments on this item

Comment on this item