| | Bill, I agree that the statement stands out in contrast to what we would expect, but there it is. She did not elaborate at that moment and certainly not later. However, realize that we are, indeed, fairly protected, at least by technology, if not the law. Although from 1911, for Ayn Rand in NYC the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was local history.
Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks – many of the workers who could not escape
the burning building jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors to the streets below.
I point out that the dead were young immigrant girls, like Rand, who herself worked a wide range of low-wage jobs between lucrative writing gigs.
The Hamlet Chicken Factory fire of 1991 involved the same safety violation: workers locked in.
The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire was an industrial fire in Hamlet, North Carolina, at the Imperial Foods processing plant on September 3, 1991, resulting from a failure in a hydraulic line. Twenty-five were killed and 55 injured in the fire, trapped behind locked fire doors. In 11 years of operation, the plant had never received a safety inspection.
-- Wikipedia here
I would say that it is within the proper police powers of the government to inspect a factory on the same basis that the police would stop and frisk a known felon to see if he is carrying a firearm. ... and yes an insurance inspection certificate perhaps would meet their needs and they could go about their business elsewhere...
But I agree that everything is dangerous. If you stretch the numbers a bit, your chances of getting killed in a jet liner are about the same as getting killed while jumping on the couch, hence, mom was right. I have worked for Kawasaki and Honda. The Japanese firms tend to be very safe compared to their American counterparts, but here is story about Nissan in Smyrna, Tennessee, where three people died in unrelated incidents over 18 months. Again, risks are everywhere. That is life. So, I see that side of the argument, also. That said, it is at least a two-sided problem.
Taking responsibility for your own safety is another aspect.
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