According to Wikipedia, 5 people died building the Empire State Building. Workers dying on the job wasn't uncommon back in those days, and considering the size

According to Wikipedia, 5 people died building the Empire State Building. Workers dying on the job wasn't uncommon back in those days, and considering the size of the project, that's actually probably pretty good for that day and age. According to another poster here, the Freedom Tower had a whole bunch of safety incidents too and serious injuries. Obviously, safety has gotten better over the years, but it's not like people were falling off the ESB left and right during construction. Also, we have the benefits of modern technologies now: safety technologies, cranes, etc. It should be both faster and safer to build something that size, just like we can build cars now that are better than Model Ts in every single way. But it isn't. It's not about pensions, and it certainly isn't about healthcare (we don't have nationalized healthcare in the US, we have a complete fucking mess). The problem is politics and bureaucracy. We just can't get stuff done like we used to.