[Porsche-O-Phile]

I dunno. Even WITH OSHA, I've seen some pretty scary stuff on construction sites. It makes one wonder exactly how bad it would get without the threat of oversight or jobs getting red-tagged.

I dislike government intervention as a general rule but when it comes to DIRECT life-safety issues, I find myself having a bit less of a problem with it. The problem is when the "safety" card gets played over and over and over and stretched further and further into superfluous and indirect things in order to rationalize increased government spending and control. Construction doesn't seem this way though - there are very real life-safety concerns, for the public and for the builders.

However, I imagine if OSHA ceased to exist, insurance underwriters would adopt parallel standards so it makes one wonder whether OSHA is really necessary ultimately. But to address your original point, it also makes one wonder whether OSHA is the cause of "protecting the genetically inferior" or whether free market pressures would do the same, as a result of our underlying societal belief that all life somehow has intrinsic value.

In general, it's odd how humans (and most notably Americans) seem to do the exact OPPOSITE of what Darwinism would do. Instead of "only the strong survive", we coddle the weak, infirm, disadvantaged, sick and unmotivated. If we were any other species, these would be left to die. Compassion and civility fly in the face of what ultimately would be best for our species' survival. In general, the dumbest and poorest people have the most kids. It does not bode well for our continued evolution.