Carnage? Compared to What?

Here's a letter sent a few days ago to the New York Times:

Bob Herbert writes of "the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations" ("An Unnatural Disaster," May 29).  Every writer is entitled to poetic exaggeration, but Mr. Herbert's allegation that large corporations have unleashed unremitting sanguinary havoc extends well beyond exaggeration into inexcusable ignorance of history.

Since the dawn of the industrial age, when the modern corporation debuted, life...