President Trump thinks that the Federal Government is too intrusive, that big projects can’t be done cheaply and rapidly in our modern era. He cited today, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Hoover Dam, and The Empire State Building as models for his new era of rapid, quality, and unencumbered by permits type of construction.
The Golden Gate Bridge – 11 fatalities in construction on an unknown quantity of workers – the rule of thumb in the 1930s was to expect 1 fatality for every $1 million spent.
The Hoover Dam – 96 fatalities in construction 3000+ workers for a rate of 3200/100,000 workers
Empire State Building – 6 fatalities in construction with 3000+ workers for a rate of 200/100,000 workers
By contrast in 2015 the industry average for construction was, 12.5 per 100,000.
But yeah, sure, let’s go back to the 1930s where we could throw up an environmental disaster like the Hoover Dam, pay poor wages to workers who risked life and limb and were killed at a rate of around 136x of what we enjoy with modern OSHA standards.