Excuse me, why does it cost $100+ million in a month to win a Senate race?

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I realize it’s big stakes in the Georgia Senate runoff this round, but that’s an insane amount of money that would be better spent in countless other ways, and apparently the well is running dry and the Democrats want more.

I realize it could flip control of the senate and that is the big deal on the line here. Doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t cost $100+ million in a month…and that’s just the Democrats. I’m not sure what kind of tab the Republicans are running on this one race. I’m getting tired of hearing “They’re outspending us” in regards to politics. They might as well say “They’re out-corrupting us and that’s the key to winning.”

And as neat as the grassroots donations are, there's a pretty good chance those donors won't get anything in return. At least with corporate donors and the rich it's pretty much guaranteed they will.

 

[SuperMatt]

I realize it’s big stakes in the Georgia Senate runoff this round, but that’s an insane amount of money that would be better spent in countless other ways, and apparently the well is running dry and the Democrats want more.

I realize it could flip control of the senate and that is the big deal on the line here. Doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t cost $100+ million in a month…and that’s just the Democrats. I’m not sure what kind of tab the Republicans are running on this one race. I’m getting tired of hearing “They’re outspending us” in regards to politics. They might as well say “They’re out-corrupting us and that’s the key to winning.”

And as neat as the grassroots donations are, there's a pretty good chance those donors won't get anything in return. At least with corporate donors and the rich it's pretty much guaranteed they will.

I don’t think it actually costs that much. I believe there are serious diminishing returns. Just look at some of the earlier races like Amy McGrath raising almost $90 million. She never had a chance against Mitch in a solid red state. No amount of campaign spending is going to change the minds of people that already made up their minds. If the campaign is spending this kind of money, it should be buying cab fare for every voter so they can get a free ride to the polls.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I don’t think it actually costs that much. I believe there are serious diminishing returns. Just look at some of the earlier races like Amy McGrath raising almost $90 million. She never had a chance against Mitch in a solid red state. No amount of campaign spending is going to change the minds of people that already made up their minds. If the campaign is spending this kind of money, it should be buying cab fare for every voter so they can get a free ride to the polls.

I'd like to see an itemized list of where that type of spending for an election goes.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Every time I see the amount of money required to win (or even just compete) in a race, and it's in the millions, or hundreds of millions of dollars, all I can think is, Do you know how many problems we could solve in this country with that kind of money? And here it is being wasted on something ephemeral like an election. Fix bridges with that money. Shore up our soon-to-be-flooded coasts. Improve the environment. There's no shortage of things that need fixing in America.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Every time I see the amount of money required to win (or even just compete) in a race, and it's in the millions, or hundreds of millions of dollars, all I can think is, Do you know how many problems we could solve in this country with that kind of money? And here it is being wasted on something ephemeral like an election. Fix bridges with that money. Shore up our soon-to-be-flooded coasts. Improve the environment. There's no shortage of things that need fixing in America.

I’m starting to get the same thoughts when I see the hundreds of millions paid out in civil suits against police who apparently at the same time weren’t guilty of anything.

I guess we at least know who to go to with the question how much is a human life worth? Usually a rhetorical question but the police have exact dollar amounts.

 

[lizkat]

how much is a human life worth?

Well let's don't stop at questions of how police behave when someone is killed.

We can always go to things like what does a regulatory agency say a corporation should be fined when a human life is lost or maimed through preventable injury.

​

About half of US states run their own Occupational Safety and Health Advisory units. They are required by federal law to be as stringent as the federal OSHA.​

​

Under Trump both OSHA inspection and enforcement aspects have been reduced, worker safety training made voluntary, and the Obama-era OSHA Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee was disbanded. The latter was set up to advise the Department of Labor on how to protect employees wishing to cite safety violations by employers.​

​

But the Department of Labor under Trump signaled its interests by such behavior as even switching sides on in-progress proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, taking the side of management, not labor.​

"So there's that..."

FedEx worker killed in accident at Memphis hub

The unidentified female employee was loading and unloading cargo.

abcnews.go.com

The upshot of investigation of this particular incident was that the Tennessee OSHA (TOSHA) fined FedEx seven grand, primarily because it was a second offense related to similar previous incident where no fine was issued. In that earlier one the victim survived but had eight broken ribs and a lacerated liver. In this one the fine of $7000 over loss of a life was eventually reduced to $5950 after FedEx showed a list of stuff it said it had done to address the problem.

A Temp Worker Died on the Job After FedEx Didn’t Fix a Known Hazard. The Fine: $7,000.

FedEx workers at the Memphis World Hub said they were pressured to work faster than they felt was safe. The company faces its busiest season ever, but experts worry about safety practices after the “extremely preventable” death of a temporary worker.

www.propublica.org

This time, TOSHA did an on-site investigation. It concluded that FedEx was aware from [previous surviving victim] Stanberry’s injury of the hazards associated with containers and the equipment ferrying them around, but that the company had not done enough to fix the problem.

FedEx, whose annual revenue tops $75 billion, was fined $7,000 in March for failing to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.”

The penalty was later reduced to $5,950, after FedEx provided TOSHA with a list of measures it took to prevent similar incidents.

sources

Worker Dangers Up As Trump OSHA Cuts Come Home To Roost, Say AFL-CIO Exec, Ex-DOL Official

OSHA staffers don’t have legal authority to inspect workplaces for coronavirus and other infectious disease dangers, a former DOL official asserted. He notes the Obama Administration started to develop OSHA comprehensive infectious disease standards in 2009.

www.forbes.com

Trump rolls back worker safety rules

“We want to protect our workers,” Trump said in 2017. But his administration has weakened measures designed to keep them safe.

www.politico.com