Theoretical and statistical analysis alone cannot convey the full meaning of the daily exchange of risk for livelihood. Here are two narratives chosen for their historical prominence. For most of us who know them only dimly or at a distance they are like myths – dramatic, exemplary, and larger than life. But they are also real.

The Triangle fire of 1911

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company had offices and production facilities in the top three floors of the ten-story Asch Building, still standing half a block from Washington Square in New York City. Its business was the cutting and sewing of women's garments, a highly competitive field at the turn of the century, as it is today. Hundreds of workers, most of them young women, immigrants or the daughters of immigrants, put in long hours at low wages, suffering conditions that gave birth to the term “sweatshop.”

From a business standpoint these women were not even employees of Triangle. The company hired a small number of master garment workers, and these in turn contracted for workers to fill out their teams. The contractors negotiated piece rates with the company, paid their helpers according to informal wage agreements, and pocketed the difference. In return for granting a job offering a few cents more per hour, the master contractor expected obedience and gratitude from those beneath him. The company, moreover, had no dealings with most of their work force; they kept no payroll records other than their piece rate payments for finished output nor did they even know how many workers were on the premises at any given time.