[barry-cotter]

If you look at a graph of historical workplace deaths you can’t tell where OSHA was enacted. There’s no change in the rate of decrease of workplace deaths. As far as minimum wage laws go less than 5% of the US workforce gets paid minimum wage, and unpaid internships are both obviously beneficial to those who take them and ah, skirting the law to all parties’ benefit. Minimum wage laws are a great way to reduce workforce participation, just look at France. Does the US even have overtime laws as such?

Dubai is part of the UAE for what it’s worth but it would be impossible to treat workers like that in the US because (a) the US does not do slavery, or indentured servitude outside prisons (b) you can sue people in the US because you have the rule of law and a functioning legal system where everyone has equal rights. Before OSHA if a worker got injured at your place they they could sue you, so most places had insurance, which got more expensive if injuries happened. People also notice if a workplace is more dangerous. They demand higher pay to work there.

[AlexandrB]

> unpaid internships are both obviously beneficial to those who take them and ah, skirting the law to all parties’ benefit.

Unpaid internships are a great way to gate off poor people from high-paying jobs. No matter how beneficial they are to the intern, if said intern can't afford rent and food while on your internship it's simply not an option for them. Unpaid internships have no place in a society that wants to consider itself a meritocracy because the primary qualification for an unpaid internship is not merit but a well-off family.

[barry-cotter]

If you can afford to not work for three or four years while getting a Bachelor’s and the tens of thousands of dollars you pay in tuition you can afford to do a six month unpaid internship.

What you say is absolutely true but if unpaid internships are a problems journalism schools and other forms of credentialist gatekeeping are much worse.

If the choice existed would you rather go to Columbia Journalism School it spend two years working for the New York Post unpaid? Wouldn’t you get more and more valuable experience as a dogsbody for a fashion photographer than doing a degree in photography?

Credentialism is bad for the sane reason unpaid internships are bad but does vastly more damage to oppprtunity.

[tropo]

OSHA is why I can't have a perfectly normal UL-listed power strip at work, but somehow a UPS (with a battery full of lead and sulfuric acid) is perfectly fine. Every place where I'd want a power strip, I have to use a UPS.

Given the evidence, OSHA looks dumb and useless.

[ntsplnkv2]

Perhaps it would be helpful to share said graph?

[barry-cotter]

It’ll show up if you do an image search for OSHA historical workplace deaths. Also in the below document http://freedomandprosperity.org/2012/blog/big-government/ass...

If you look at this economic history link you’ll see a reasonably consistent trend, not universal, of decreasing workplace deaths.

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/history-of-workplace-safety-in-th...

[ntsplnkv2]

Thank you