see Ezra www.nytimes.com/2023/02/05/o... quite explicitly describing workplace safety as a problem (via google books, i think the same anecdotes are in the book, but i haven't read it yet). 1/

it's not clear he's saying workplace safety standards are a *problem* exactly. he acknowledges there are tradeoffs, and is explicit that this might be a good tradeoff. but it's provided in a context where lots of individually seemingly justified tradeoffs are alleged to compose to sclerosis. 2/

(in general, i don't think equating the Ezra Klein / Derek Thompson abundance intervention with YIMBY is right. they're clearly related, but not the same thing. you can be a YIMBY and enthusiastic or unenthusiastic about their generalization of certain YIMBY housing ideas to domains far afield) /fin