You would think that people were learn the lesson, right? But capitalism values capital, not people, and the same thing still goes on.
On September 3, 1991, a fire started in an Imperial Food Products chicken processing plant. There was no sprinkler system, no evacuation plan and only one fire extinguisher. The flames soon spread. As workers rushed for the doors, they found that they couldn't get out. All but the very front doors had been padlocked from the outside. Company exacutives later said they did this to prevent chicken parts from being stolen. Twenty-five out of ninety workers died in the blaze. More than fifty others were burned or injured.
The media called it a "horrific accident," but it was no accident, and the plant had never once been inspected in its eleven year history.
Oh, and the starting pay was $4.95 an hour. One can understand why executives would be worried that employees would try to steal food with that kind of a wage.
vox
Economists have provided capitalists with a comforting concept called the "free market." It does not describe any part of reality, at any place or time. It's a mantra conveniently invoked when it is proposed that government do something the faithful don't like, and just as conveniently ignored whenever they want government to do something for them.
