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I would and furthermore I think there is a massive bias at play - if the exact same disaster happened in China there would be jokes about bridges made of Chines

I would and furthermore I think there is a massive bias at play - if the exact same disaster happened in China there would be jokes about bridges made of Chinesium. There is an expectation that a disaster happening in the west in a result of unforeseeable act of god, but in China it will be a result of corruption or shoddy workmanship. Whereas in reality maintenance standard in the west have fallen but in the east they improved. So now this bias protects responsible decision makers from legal consequences - no one went to prison for grenfell disaster, postmaster scandal or the Boeing debacle.

Spooky23 3y ago
Well everyone involved in the design of this bridge is long dead.
BHSPitMonkey 3y ago
> Whereas in reality maintenance standard in the west have fallen In the context of this incident, are you saying that we _previously_ used to go around retrofitting our 50-year-old bridges with more modern defenses, and then at some point since then we stopped doing this? Obviously if we're talking about new construction, it stands to reason that standards have only _increased_, but this was an old bridge built to old standards. So which standards have "fallen" to result in this disaster specifically?
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago
  Literally, yes, someone is responsible > 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition. Unfortunately, 178 million trips are taken across these structurally deficient bridges every day
  - BHSPitMonkey 3y ago
    That doesn't answer the question I asked regarding the specific claim that maintenance standards have fallen. For example, it's possible maintenance standards never changed and the old bridges simply got older and more exposed to risk as the years went on.

3 ms·

I would and furthermore I think there is a massive bias at play - if the exact same disaster happened in China there would be jokes about bridges made of Chines

by ClumsyPilot 3y ago

Spooky23 3y ago
Well everyone involved in the design of this bridge is long dead.
BHSPitMonkey 3y ago
> Whereas in reality maintenance standard in the west have fallen In the context of this incident, are you saying that we _previously_ used to go around retrofitting our 50-year-old bridges with more modern defenses, and then at some point since then we stopped doing this? Obviously if we're talking about new construction, it stands to reason that standards have only _increased_, but this was an old bridge built to old standards. So which standards have "fallen" to result in this disaster specifically?
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago
  Literally, yes, someone is responsible > 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition. Unfortunately, 178 million trips are taken across these structurally deficient bridges every day
  - BHSPitMonkey 3y ago
    That doesn't answer the question I asked regarding the specific claim that maintenance standards have fallen. For example, it's possible maintenance standards never changed and the old bridges simply got older and more exposed to risk as the years went on.