This is, what, the 4th mine collapse we've had in a year? Together with the story of the collapsed bridge, amongst all the heroic stories of rescue, there seems to be very little motivation to explore WHY these mines are collapsing (contrary to corporate claims, seismologists say there was no seismic activity), WHY these bridges are falling, and WHAT anybody is going to do about it.
It seems that when you scrape just the top layer of the story you find that, as I wrote about earlier, that tens of thousands of bridges have been duly inspected according to law, found to be UNSAFE, but nothing happens. And, as Arianna writes, the Utah Mine, and other mines, have been duly inspected, and found to have had 324 safety violations, 107 of them "significant and substantial." But nothing is done about it. Year after year after year, nothing happens.
Eventually the mine owners get fined. And they apparently are willing to pay those fines and continue operating as usual. Is paying the fine cheaper than fixing the problem? And if so, doesn't that mean we're actually putting a price on workers' lives? Why aren't the mines shut down? Why aren't the bridges closed? Why is "commerce must go on!" more important than people's lives? Why is fixing bridges not in the budget, but the war and tax cuts are, acceptable?
And why doesn't anybody seem to care?
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