Michael Lewis’ long-form profile of Chris Marks is definitely worth a read [WaPo gift link]. Marks’ pioneering work in mine safety led to the first year in modern history (2016) with no fatalities from roof falls in coal mines. The piece does a lot to debunk the horseshit conservative talking points about industry self-regulating. Here’s one example:
One of the examples in the piece is the introduction of roof bolts to replace timber supports. Even though these could in theory be a safer solution, the invisible hand of the free market worked against safety:
The standard story — the story accepted by the coal mine industry — was that new technology had led inexorably to greater safety. What had happened was far more interesting — and told you how this little American subculture worked, rather than the way economists who had never seen the inside of a coal mine might imagine that it worked. Roof bolts were indeed more efficient and effective than timber supports in preventing chunks of roof from wounding miners. But they were expensive to install. The coal mine companies had, in effect, figured out how few roof bolts they needed to use to maintain the same level of risk their miners had endured before their invention. “Simply stated,” Chris wrote, “roof bolts can only prevent roof falls if enough of them are installed.”
And so, amazingly, for the first 20 years of its use, the main effect of the most important lifesaving technology in the history of coal mining was to increase the efficiency of the mines while preserving existing probabilities of death and injury. Taking advantage, essentially, of people conditioned to a certain level of risk by failing to ameliorate that risk. “No one puts people’s lives at risk per se,” Chris said. “It’s not obvious most of the time that people’s lives are at stake. You’re always playing probabilities. But they knew what they were doing. They could see people dying. Even in a union mine they did it. That is what is so extraordinary. These were not dumb guys. This was a conscious decision.”
It took a catastrophe in Utah in 2007 to change the law so that there was mandatory inspection of mines deeper than 1,000 feet. That led to to the 2016 year without a single death. The irony in this whole roof collapse issue is that roof collapses are very expensive for the mining industry, so they should have a market incentive to increase safety. But, since Supply-Side Jesus is just a myth, it took government regulation to save lives, as it does in so many other industries, such as the meat industry’s recent regulatory failure at Boar’s Head Meats.
Geminid
dm
Germany for decades had very few mining accidents, because the government and unions enforced safety standards.
bbleh
Something something Heavy Hand of Government something Smothering Incentive something.
Also, too, those miners didn’t HAVE to take those jobs! They made THEIR OWN choices. Something something Gummint Interference in Free-Market Contracts something.
Baud
All we gotta do now is persuade the miners.
gene108
The Boar’s Head story is disturbing.
We rely heavily on the assumption that the food producing industry meet minimum safety standards and the government effectively enforces those standards.
I think it’s an illusion and we’re all lucky to not always be contracting food poisoning.
raven
This is the front page of the July 1, 1914 Du Quoin Evening Call. Hiram was my grandfather’s father and was cut in half by a cable that broke while he was oiling a flywheel in a coal mine.
Anonymous At Work
I lecture on regulations in research and I do use the Written in Blood line, to great effect. The “no storing radioactive material in crew berths” gets a lot of attention. People cannot believe that such a regulation is necessary, but it was.
Starfish
@gene108: We could save money by having fewer government food safety inspectors or outsourcing safety inspection to the food companies themselves, right? /s
Starfish
It’s good to see Michael Lewis doing things to rebuild his reputation after the whole SBF thing and the whole thing with “The Blind Side.”
gene108
@Baud:
I hope this changes.
I hope the attitude of “I did ‘x’ dangerous job and turned out fine, so kids these days need to toughen up” starts dying out.
Kids in any generation are always soft, weak, and have it too easy per the older generations.
I’m sure there were lectures by older members of our Paleolithic hunter gatherer ancestors lecturing the kids about how easy they have it, because when the old folks were young they hadn’t found the valley of fruit trees they now go to in the summer and all they had to eat was nuts, roots, and whatever meat they hunted. No spending an afternoon climbing trees and gorging on sweet fruits all day. Nope. Nothing sweeter than a root or a nut when grandpa was your age.
zhena gogolia
OT, but does anyone know where Ozark Hillbilly is?
Ironcity
In 1975 I graduated into the worst engineer job market in a while. Had one very soft maybe offer, and one from the Mining Enforcement Safety Administration (MESA) in Pikeville KY. A couple weeks later I had one from the Navy, accepted it, and started as an engineer in the DC area. A couple months later there was a teeny little bottom of the column article in the Washington Post (Watergate era, they were the good guys then) about 3 federal mine inspectors from the MESA office in Pikeville KY that were killed in a cave-in when inspecting a mine that was reopening. One journeyman inspector and 2 new guys. The next day at work I didn’t kiss the sign out front , but I sure appreciated that it didn’t involve risking my life in a mine. And that’s what I think of Raygun and the R’s and their “overpaid underworked lazy civil service” BS.
trollhattan
Being crushed saves you from silicosis later, so there’s that upside.
Chris T.
@gene108:
Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch
gene108
@Starfish:
I think the bigger problem is the lack of consequences when a facility, farm, etc. is found to not comply with safety regulations.
Outside of some lost revenue at one facility, recalled meat (more lost revenue), some wrongful death lawsuits that will settle before trial, there’s no significant downside to noncompliance.
The government will eventually slap a monetary fine on Boar’s Head, but it won’t be enough to change bad behavior, if management chooses not to change.
It’s a societal issue. Enough people would rather take the risk of contaminated meat versus hiring more government inspectors and having tougher laws.
I don’t think it’s about higher taxes, either. Enough people are locked into the “government’s not the boss of me” mindset, when it comes to certain issues.
raven
@Ironcity: My buddy graduated from SIU about that time and was a mine inspector who lived in Louisa, KY.
Steve LaBonne
Unregulated capitalism is literal murder. I wish every generation didn’t have to relearn that the hard way.
The Thin Black Duke
@Steve LaBonne: “The lesson we learn from history is we don’t learn from history.”
scav
@gene108: Until the actual decision makers (rather than the corporate entity) takes the hit, there’s no real downside to making these sort of risky decisions. Especially as leaders cycle through jobs faster and faster. The downside event will likely hit on somebody’s else’s watch and besides, that’s what insurance is for.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ironcity: Wow. That’s scary.
Josie
I clicked through and read the description of what was found in the Boar’s Head facility. UGH! I won’t be buying any of their products any time soon.
Jackie
@Geminid: That was deep.
Baud
@gene108:
People and workers think enforcement means higher prices and lost jobs. How do you convince them that’s not true?
Another Scott
@gene108:
Yup.
We have a bunch of fairly large UPS systems at work to keep critical equipment powered during brownouts and blackouts and AC power upgrades. Of course, the batteries need to be replaced every few years. Lots of batteries… I got curious if there were any OSHA reports of issues with maintenance on such systems.
OSHA.gov report from 2018.
tl;dr – Worker was electrocuted working on a battery stack in a very large UPS (his belly contacted a 540V line when he was reaching for something). Company was initially fined $13,260 for “Serious” violation of safety regulations. Fine was reduced to $0 on appeal.
:-(
Very interesting piece, MM. Thanks.
Grr…,
Scott.
JaySinWA
It looks like the Boar’s Head Carol needs a new verse or two.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar%27s_Head_Carol
Steve in the ATL
@raven: is SIU a football powerhouse like NIU?
[confidential to Catholics: zing!]
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: I asked that in the morning thread. Last sighting 8/28.
TF79
“What had happened was far more interesting — and told you how this little American subculture worked, rather than the way economists who had never seen the inside of a coal mine might imagine that it worked.”
That’s a strange remark about economists, given that the article gives the standard “economics” explanation for not installing roof bolts in the paragraph after the quoted section: “If coal mine companies had played the odds with miners’ lives, it was because they felt they couldn’t afford not to. Any mine that installed a safe number of roof bolts would find itself at a competitive disadvantage to any mine that didn’t.” That’s like an econ 101 textbook explanation.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Yikes. Building I work in has similar responsibilities and a UPS room behind a door with a bunch of warnings, but about lead and acid and not electrocution per se. Bigass diesel generator outside for redundant redundancy.
In addition to that are the various generation and pumping facilities handling enormous amounts of current and so they have flashover/arc flash safety training. Some of the videos showing actual incidents are pretty
shockingstartling. You don’t really have to touch anything.zhena gogolia
@MagdaInBlack: I saw that, and that’s why I’m asking here, hoping maybe somebody remembers him saying something.
gene108
@Baud:
I don’t know.
Industry plays into this fear by blaming regulations for layoffs, while hiding the real business decision behind the job cutting.
catclub
And is a TEXTBOOK market failure that can only be remedied by non-market government regulation.
Michael Lewis is a gifted storyteller.
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: Thank you.
TF79
@catclub: For sure!
frosty
Deleted – dead thread
jonas
@Baud: Well, they’re all out of work now because unsanitary conditions in the plant killed 9 people and the Boar’s Head brand name is probably sunk for good.
We’ll see if that convinces anyone, but I’m not optimistic. Our stupid ape brains are still programmed to take that chance on immediate gratification (i.e. profits) now over avoiding pain (killing people, destroying your business) later.
Ironcity
@jonas: The Harris Teeter had a full line of Boers Head products out at the deli counter today. Strangely, there were no customers around the counter, though the store was average busy. What do you give it, a week or 2 to go back to usual?
raven
@Steve in the ATL: The day of the hobnail boot game we were in Carbondale for a family reunion. It was homecoming and the parade was pitiful!
raven
@Steve in the ATL: The day of the hobnail boot game we were in Carbondale for a family reunion. It was homecoming and the parade was pitiful!
Scuffletuffle
@zhena gogolia: last I saw, he was having significant health issues.
Carlo Graziani
What a remarkable story. Thank you for flagging it.
One interesting contrast that occurs to me is the safety record of tge airline industry. Which is incredible—someting like 700,000,000 passengers fly every year in the US alone, and dying on an airline flight is orders of magnitude harder than buying a winning MegaMillions ticket. This despite the complexities of keeping these unbelievably complex machines individually in the air under ideal circumstances, plus keeping the from ramming each other on approach or take-off when there are 2 flights taking off or landing every 60 seconds (O’Hare), supplying fuel, supplying food, loading planes safely, and on, and on, and on…
Which works precisely because of an extensive regulatory and enforcement regime that’s been in place for more than 60 years now, without which planes would fall out of the sky all the time. And which is uncontroversial despite the expense that it imposes on the industry, because it protects the broader flying public, rather than merely a small-ish, lower-middle class segment such as mine workers.
Ironcity
@Carlo Graziani: For airlines the simple fact is if they are not safe enough people will not fly on them and no passengers, no revenue and you are out of business. Still, the most reliable way to make $1M in the airline business is to start out with at least $2M.
The start of the regulatory system we have today was the 1926 Air Commerce Act. Before that there was almost no federal regulation of aviation: no pilot licenses, no airworthiness system. Different states were starting to regulate aviation. And lots of the lessons in aviation are written blood — literally. One of the drivers of the airworthiness of designs and maintenance regulations we have today is because an airliner came apart and killed a senator. And a football coach. You bet that gets their attention.
Carlo Graziani
@Ironcity: Yes. I guess that’s my point. There is a difference in the regulatory and enforcement environment that an industry can expect to face depending on whether the risks that it faces affect its customers or its workers. That’s immoral.
JaneE
Perhaps not all, but certainly much regulation should be unnecessary. Should be, but the number of bad actors in a capitalist society makes that regulation a necessity. It takes deaths to get some regulations. Far too much regulation can be derided as common sense, but those are the regulations that came into being because lack of “common sense” killed so many there was a public outcry.
Someday I wish a journalist would ask the person saying there is too much regulation that is not needed, why someone who is responsible and intelligent enough to do what the regulation requires anyway would feel a need to complain about it. I am thinking of gun safety regulations specifically. Why would someone who never keeps a loaded gun unsecured where children can get to it feel imposed upon when a regulation tells him to do what he supposedly already does? If you keep your guns in a gun safe, if you use a trigger lock, if you don’t leave your guns loaded, what does it matter if the regulation says you have to?
I would think that washing your hands after using the toilet is automatic, but every restaurant restroom has a sign remining employees that it is mandatory. I would also think that selling food you know is contaminated by illness-causing bacteria would be something every food company would not do, but I would have been wrong several times over by now.