When corporations rule, people die

Laura Clawson at Dailykos reports a disturbing statistic that more people die each year from workplace accidents than died during the entire nine years of the Iraq war. She writes:

”The 4,551 people who were killed on the job in American workplaces in 2009 represent "carnage that eclipsed the total number of U.S. fatalities in the nine-year Iraq war ... Yet the typical fine for a worker death is about $7,900," iWatch News' Jim Morris points out in a look at the limitations of Occupational Safety and Health Act enforcement in the United States.”

She also offers this video from iWatch news in her post:

When corporations rule without being questioned, without being challenged, without a strong counterbalance to hold them in check, a form of free market slavery beings to appear, people work longer hours, they work for less, their stress levels rise, working conditions deteriorate and people’s lives literally become at stake. This happens, because it simply isn’t profitable to do otherwise. Who’s fighting for these people anymore?