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Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

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Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#211

Post by AnthonyMouse »

thomastjeffery wrote: post #178
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because we have a public health care system, funded by taxes, having a large number of young men out of the work force (not paying taxes) and using the health care system effectively means my taxes, everyone's taxes, are higher. The US healthcare system uses private insurance, implying that more use of the healthcare system raises everyone's premiums. And people without insurance then go to emergency rooms which ar…

That incentive is obfuscated, though. Every insurer exists as an invisible boundary where cost is not passed to others. On top of that, insurance is optional . There is no guarantee a person will get affordable care. That's the entire point of the system! If there were a guarantee, it would be indistinguishable from Canada (and practically every other country's) single payer healthcare system.

> Every insurer exists as an invisible boundary where cost is not passed to others.

How does that affect issues like this where an increase in overall costs would reasonably be expected to apply to all insurers?

> On top of that, insurance is optional.

More than 90% of the population has health insurance, which is well over the majority required to bring about legislation.

> If there were a guarantee, it would be indistinguishable from Canada (and practically every other country's) single payer healthcare system.

That certainly isn't true. Serious problems with the US healthcare system include AMA lobbying to maintain a doctor shortage, various patent laws and FDA rules that limit competition and increase costs and a malicious lack of cost transparency. None of that would be improved merely by routing the premiums through the government.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#212

Post by rightbyte »

Tagbert wrote: post #83
ffgjgf1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn’t everyone pick plastic straws instead of paper ones coated with PFAS if given the choice?

Or why pick any straws unless you have a medical condition that prevents you from just drinking. We typically order water to drink in restaurants and when it gets to the table, the servers almost always toss some straws on the table. If we say we don’t want them or if we mention when ordering that we don’t want straws, we get looks like we must be some weirdos. Why automatically push straws for everyone?

Only time I want straws is when the drink is too thick to drink by tipping the glass. Like chocolate with quite alot of cream as decoration or some smoothies. Soda with too much ice crush ... just have too much ice.

I find it quite strange for adults to drink with straws. It is a child thing in my world.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#213

Post by AnthonyMouse »

pydry wrote: post #195
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Knowing all of this, it makes perfect sense to tax the living crap out of highly processed foods that are made from subsidized ingredients. The consequence of this would be that the subsidized food gets exported to a country that doesn't tax it, at which point you're subsidizing some other country's food. The US is also a large net exporter of food, implying there is more than enough domestic production for wartime…

>The consequence of this would be that the subsidized food gets exported to a country that doesn't tax it, at which point you're subsidizing some other country's food. If theyre smart they won't take this shit either. Nice of you to let Americans sacrifice their health on $othercountry's behalf though.

> If theyre smart they won't take this shit either.

What do you suppose the chances are of 100% of other countries imposing a similar tax on this type of food?

> Nice of you to let Americans sacrifice their health on $othercountry's behalf though.

Stop subsidizing it and you don't have to tax the subsidy back out.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#214

Post by gamblor956 »

willcipriano wrote: post #101
spankalee wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tax cheats are bad, actually. And those taxes are required to pay those safety inspectors, among others.

10% of what went to Ukraine would've hired how many safety inspectors? Ukraine is a life or death situation you say? Solicosis isn't? How many tax men do we need before we get the government to do the bare minimum here?

Each IRS audit agent annually recovers more than 10x their salary in previously unpaid taxes...

That money is used to pay for things that the government does. What exactly is your beef here?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#215

Post by rayiner »

charles_f wrote: post #55

Tangentially related, there's this copper mining museum in BC (1) in what used to be one of these corporate towns where you lived and died. They do a quick demo of the equipments they used back in the day, in a pre cut hole. Even with your hands on your hears it's painful, teeth chattering - and they don't even really hit the rock. People working in there weren't wearing any sort of hearing protection and became deaf…

> Makes you think about the sort of progress in worker protection that was made since then. But also this kind of story reveals how people are still ready to profiteer from such deadly practices, if given the opportunity.

It’s not just people “profiteering” though? The story mentions workers standing at Home Depot. These are ordinary homeowners hiring these shops to custom cut countertops for them. It’s not some mega-corp mass-manufacturing counter tops.

And now half the people who should be trying to put a stop to it are instead talking about how we need low skill, low education foreign workers that can easily be exploited to keep consumer prices low.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#216

Post by mhb »

bastawhiz wrote: post #192
mhb wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your Maytag dishwasher breaks after a month, do you think the best thing to do is to buy a Maytag washing machine?

I don't say "I'm not using a dishwasher anymore" I figure out how to get the dishwasher that's in my kitchen fixed.

Fine. So advocate for fixing OSHA instead of revamping the entire health care system.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#217

Post by rightbyte »

jader201 wrote: post #26

Not long ago, we had our countertop replaced (from quartz to granite). They ended up having to make a cut in it while it was sitting in our kitchen. Our home was in a cloud of dust for several hours, and when the dust finally settled a day later, every surface imaginable was covered in dust. I’m pretty sure none of them wore masks when doing this. I honestly didn’t think to wear a mask either (since they weren’t and…

When I do sand blasting a have a little box I do it in. With windows. I wonder why they don't have such an arrangement for the bench cutting. No matter the health hazard, it doesn't sound economical to cover a whole kitchen in dust for a two feet cut.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#218

Post by spankalee »

gamblor956 wrote: post #214
willcipriano wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% of what went to Ukraine would've hired how many safety inspectors? Ukraine is a life or death situation you say? Solicosis isn't? How many tax men do we need before we get the government to do the bare minimum here?

Each IRS audit agent annually recovers more than 10x their salary in previously unpaid taxes... That money is used to pay for things that the government does. What exactly is your beef here?

He wants to get away with cheating on taxes.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#219

Post by smogcutter »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #152
charles_f wrote: post #55

Tangentially related, there's this copper mining museum in BC (1) in what used to be one of these corporate towns where you lived and died. They do a quick demo of the equipments they used back in the day, in a pre cut hole. Even with your hands on your hears it's painful, teeth chattering - and they don't even really hit the rock. People working in there weren't wearing any sort of hearing protection and became deaf…

Today the leading cause of death is heart disease. In that era it was infectious disease. You could have a cushy job doing numbers work in a city and still die of tuberculosis from being in close quarters. People were fine with it because everything was terrible. In the century between the 1850s and 1950s we went from not even having radio communications or the germ theory of disease to building nuclear submarines an…

No Pinkertons here! Just the invisible hand of the market.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#220

Post by rayiner »

aaomidi wrote: post #20
willcipriano wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Removing the availability of cheap labor by providing more worker rights, and less/no criminalization of undocumented immigrants alongside an h1b reform would do wonders for the general health of this society.

How are you going to have “more worker rights” when your workforce is desperate, poorly educated immigrants who come from countries with no labor or workplace safety protections? Counter cutting is a custom business—these aren’t mega corps you can easily regulate. Did you know that this was even a problem until you read this article? Do you think do gooders can be everywhere to observe this sort of thing and bring it to the authorities? Do you think legislators are going to care about this issue when it only affects undocumented immigrants who can’t vote? (Or are you suggesting that people should be able to vote the minute they come over the border?)

There is a deep and fundamental link between having a native born workforce that is educated in this country and socialized to expect certain minimum standards, and the ability to legislate and enforce increased worker protections.

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